This is really not good, folks. This guy, Abu Dura, has spent the past couple of years over in Iran because the heat got too intense in Iraq where he is known to have killed thousands of Sunni muslims during the battles of the Iraq War and now this shitbag is bag in Sadr City. One might conclude that his return coinciding with the withdrawl of last battle troops from Iraq is more than a mere coincidence.
Here's some from the story at The Long War Journal:
I don't want to be crying wolf here nor giving this clown more prestige than he deserves but this is exactly the kind of lunatic that we don't need back in Iraq - this is the kind of operative that could turn that country now into a powderkeg.
Now, we still have troops in Iraq and yes, some of those are the best special ops in the world - I truly hope they have this guy as #1 on their "to do" list.
Here's some from the story at The Long War Journal:
An Iranian-backed terrorist known as the "Shiite Zarqawi" is reported to have returned to Baghdad to carry out attacks in central and southern Iraq.
Abu Dura, the notorious former Mahdi Army commander whose group was behind the butchering and execution thousands of Sunnis in the capital during the height of the violence in Iraq, is said to lead a unit of the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, in Sadr City.
Abu Dura is said to have sheltered in Iran for the past two years, where he has been aided by Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
"Our strategic information indicates that he stayed in the city of Qom and that he received further training at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to carry out terrorist attacks against the Iraqi and US forces, and Sunni civilians," an Iraqi intelligence official told Asharq Al Awsat. Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army, also shelters in the city of Qom in Iran.
I don't want to be crying wolf here nor giving this clown more prestige than he deserves but this is exactly the kind of lunatic that we don't need back in Iraq - this is the kind of operative that could turn that country now into a powderkeg.
Now, we still have troops in Iraq and yes, some of those are the best special ops in the world - I truly hope they have this guy as #1 on their "to do" list.
'Shiite Zarqawi' returns to Baghdad from Iran: report
An Iranian-backed terrorist known as the "Shiite Zarqawi" is reported to have returned to Baghdad to carry out attacks in central and southern Iraq.
Abu Dura, the notorious former Mahdi Army commander whose group was behind the butchering and execution thousands of Sunnis in the capital during the height of the violence in Iraq, is said to lead a unit of the Asaib al Haq, or the League of the Righteous, in Sadr City.
Abu Dura is said to have sheltered in Iran for the past two years, where he has been aided by Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
"Our strategic information indicates that he stayed in the city of Qom and that he received further training at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to carry out terrorist attacks against the Iraqi and US forces, and Sunni civilians," an Iraqi intelligence official told Asharq Al Awsat. Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army, also shelters in the city of Qom in Iran.
The US Forces - Iraq is aware of the report, a US military intelligence official who tracks the Shia terror groups told The Long War Journal. Abu Dura's return to Iraq was partially responsible for causing General Ray Odierno to sound the alert that Iran is seeking to reignite the Shia terror insurgency.
"The Iranians... continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups," Odierno said in a press conference on July 21. "It's very difficult to say if the extremist groups are directly connected to the Iranian government. But we do know that many of them live in Iran, many of them get trained in Iran, and many of them get weapons from Iran."
Abu Dura, whose real name is Ismail Hafiz al Lami, served in Saddam Hussein's army up until 2000, when he deserted. He joined the Mahdi Army after the US invasion of Iraq 2003 , and quickly rose through the ranks by running criminal enterprise, extortion, kidnapping, and assassination rings, and by slaughtering Sunnis in Baghdad.
Abu Dura was known to use a power drill to torture and kill his victims. His excessive brutality earned him the comparison to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the sadistic leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
The US Treasury, under Executive Order 13438, added Abu Dura to its list of individuals who aid the Iraqi insurgency in January 2008. Abu Dura was added along with Ahmad Foruzandeh, the former commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, and Abu Mustafa al Sheibani, the leader of the Sheibani network, one of many Shia terror groups backed by Iran.
The US Treasury also added Akram Abbas al Kabi to its list of individuals who aid the Iraqi insurgency in September 2008. Kabi is the current leader of the League of the Righteous. He was added along with Abdul Reza Shahlai, a deputy commander in Iran's Qods Force who backed Shia terror groups. Shahlai was involved int he planning and execution of the Jan. 20, 2007 attack on the Karbala Joint Provincial Coordination Center. Five US soldiers were kidnapped and then murdered during the sophisticated attack. The Iranian-backed kidnappers were believed to be heading toward Iran before Iraqi police caught up to them.
Abu Dura's return to Iraq and rejoining the League of the Righteous caps off a year of failed US attempts to promote reconciliation with the Shia terror group. In July 2009, the US freed Laith Qazali, more than 100 other members of League, and five Iranian Qods Force officers, including Mahmud Farhadi, the leader of the Zafr Command, one of three units subordinate to the Qods Force's Ramazan Corps, the unit designated to carry out attacks in Iraq.
Laith is the brother of Qais Qazali, the founder of the League of the Righteous. Qais was Muqtada al Sadr's top aide and spokesman. Qazali was behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers in Karbala in January 2007 and numerous other acts of terrorism before he was captured by US forces in March 2007.
Qazali was released in late December 2009, purportedly as part of a reconciliation process. But Qais was released at the same time that a British contractor, who had been captured by the League of the Righteous in May of 2007, was turned over to the British. The Shia terror group previously executed four other British contractors who had also been held hostage.
The release of Qais, Laith, Farhadi, and other members of the League of the Righteous and Qods Force infuriated US military officers and intelligence officials who follow the Iranian-backed terror groups. Officials told The Long War Journal that reconciliation was a farce used to carry out a "prisoner swap."
The skepticism quickly proved to be well placed. The League of the Righteous backtracked on reconciliation, and suspended talks with the Iraqi government in early January 2010, just weeks after Qais' release. And in mid-January, the League of the Righteous kidnapped Issa T. Salomi, a US Defense Department contractor, in Baghdad.
"We’ve been had," a senior military officer told The Long War Journal in January 2010. "Anyone who closely followed the League of the Righteous should have known this was inevitable."
Salomi was freed in late March, purportedly as part of yet another prisoner swap. The US military denied such a swap was made, however.
The League of the Righteous still holds one US citizen as hostage: Sergeant Ahmed Altaie, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2006. Altaie's status is unknown however it is thought he died in captivity.
The League of the Righteous claimed it recovered Altaie's remains from another insurgent group. A group called the Ahel al Beit Brigades claimed to have kidnapped Altaie in 2007.
The US military would not officially comment on inquiries on Altaie or the Ahel al Beit Brigades. But a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal that the hel al Beit Brigades is part of the League of the Righteous.
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