NOTE: This is a more informal post than usual, so I am releasing it on the weekend.
A friend recently shared with me the old blog of Abu Abdullah al-Sunni al-Kurdi, an Iraqi Kurdish jihadist who belonged to IS. Most posts on Abu Abdullah’s blog are just ideological defenses of the IS project–including one written in Sorani Kurdish–except for two that caught my eye. One is a prison memoir of Manaf al-Rawi, which I will publish in English this Wednesday. The other is the subject of this note. It is a brief overview of IS history and ideology, titled “A Glimpse into the History of the Islamic State” (in Arabic), published 7 November, 2015.
For the most part, this “Glimpse” covers well-trodden ground, but two points are interesting. The first pertains to the very earliest phases of IS. Abu Abdullah reports:
As we mentioned, the muwahidin from Ahlus-Sunnah made hijra to Iraq to wage jihad against the enemies of God–the infidels and the apostates. One of these muhajirin who migrated to Iraq was the great Imam, Shaykh al-Mujahid Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may God have mercy on him. He took the initiative to migrate to Iraq, where–alongside a number of mujahidin, comprising muhajirin and ansar–he established a mujahid group in Anbar, specifically in the city of Ramadi. They began calling for monotheism and waging jihad against the infidels, and God blessed their work. Their numbers grew day by day, and God granted them success in their jihad and in the successive strikes which they dealt to the infidel occupying enemy and their apostate agents.
The best of the mujahidin–both muhajirin and ansar, Arabs and non-Arabs alike–rallied around them. Several jihadist groups pledged allegiance to Shaykh Abu Musab (may God Almighty have mercy on him) until the time came for Shaykh Abu Musab to announce his blessed group, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad.
Ramadi is rarely mentioned in this manner in most narratives of the formation of JTJ, so this is quite interesting. Typically, the cities that come up are Rawah, Fallujah, Mosul, and Baghdad, as these harbored well-established jihadist networks. In Ramadi’s case, it usually comes up only in the biographical context of figures who were present in those other cities. I have in mind Thamir Mubarak Atruz and Abu Faris al-Ansari, both of whom hailed from Ramadi but were active in Rawah and Fallujah. However, I vaguely recall seeing Ramadi’s name appear with greater significance in other narratives. Abu Abdullah’s brief allusion here indicates that further investigation of jihadist networks in Ramadi is necessary, so it is an important clue. The second bolded item is not new information, but it is still important corroboration that there were multiple jihadist groups operating in Iraq that eventually coalesced under Zarqawi’s leadership. On this page, we have already examined a number of these groups.
The next most significant point in Abu Abdullah’s narrative is a list of important figures, who, in his eyes, made special contributions to the IS project. It is a useful catalogue of the “who’s who” in Islamic State. Among the foreign fighters, or muhajirin, he lists:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed in Diyala
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, killed at Lake Thar Thar
Abu Muhammad al-Lubnani, killed at Abu Ghraib
Abu Yahya Saddiq al-Kurdi, killed in the Second Battle of Fallujah
Abu Nassir al-Libi, killed in the Second Battle of Fallujah
Abdullah al-Rashoud, killed in the city of Al Qaim
Abu Abdullah Umar Baziyani, executed in prison
Abu Qasurah al-Maghribi, killed in Mosul
Abu Bakr al-Iraqi, killed in Syria [Bilad al-Sham]
Baziyani’s inclusion in this list is strange, as he was an Iraqi Kurd. Likewise, Abu Bakr’s name indicates that he was an Iraqi as well. As for the Iraqis, or ansar, Abu Abdullah lists:
Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, killed at Lake Thar Thar
Thamir [Mubarak Atruz] al-Rishawi, killed in the First Battle of Fallujah
Abu Abdullah Sa’ad al-Ubaydi, killed on Ramadi Island
Abu Abdullah Muharib al-Jaburi, killed while serving as spokesman of ISI [at Taji, not listed]
Umar Hadid, killed in the Second Battle of Fallujah
Abu Abdullah Manaf al-Rawi, executed in prison
Abu Hamam Hamid al-Sa’idi, executed in prison
Abu Ghazwan al-Tarimiyah, killed in Tarimiyah
Abu Talha al-Ansari [al-Mosuli], executed in prison
Abu Sufyan Diyala [no place or cause of death listed]
Abu Azzam al-Iraqi [killed in Baghdad, not listed]
Abu Abdul-Rahman Mahdi, executed in prison
Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Bilawi, killed in the conquest of Mosul
Abu Layth Hamdun al-Ansari, killed in Mosul
Abu Umar Aras al-Kurdi, executed in prison
There are many recognizable names here. The more obscure names, such as Abu Sufyan Diyala, are good leads for further investigation.