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Six Iraqi
insurgent groups announce formation of a "political council" to
liberate Iraq
The Associated Press
10/11/07 "AP"
-- -- - Six main Iraqi insurgent groups announced the
formation of a "political council" aimed at "liberating" Iraq
from U.S. occupation in a video aired Thursday on the Arab TV
station Al-Jazeera.
The council appeared to be a new attempt to organize and assert
the leadership of the multiple insurgent groups, which have
moved to distance themselves from another coalition of insurgent
factions led by al-Qaida in Iraq.
In the video aired on Al-Jazeera, a man identified as the
council's spokesman — wearing traditional Iraqi garb and his
face blacked out — announced the council's formation and a
"political program to liberate Iraq."
He said the program was based on two principles.
"First, the occupation is an oppression and aggression, rejected
by Islamic Sharia law and tradition. Resistance of occupation is
a right guaranteed by all religions and laws," he said.
"Second, the armed resistance ... is the legitimate
representative of Iraq. It is the one that bears responsibility
for the leadership of the people to achieve its legitimate
hopes," he said.
The groups forming the council include the Islamic Army of Iraq,
the Mujahideen Army, Ansar al-Sunna, the Fatiheen Army, the
Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (Jami) and the Islamic
Movement of Hamas-Iraq.
The step could be a bid by the insurgents for a more cohesive
political voice at a time of considerable rearrangement among
Sunni insurgent groups and Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
Splinter factions of two insurgent groups, the 1920 Revolution
Brigades and the Mujahideen Army, have cooperated with U.S.
forces in fighting insurgents allied to al-Qaida in Iraq.
Earlier this year, other groups — the Islamic Army of Iraq, the
main faction of the Mujahideen Army, a branch of Ansar al-Sunna
and the Fatiheen Army — formed a coalition called the Jihad and
Reform Front opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq, though they have
continued attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
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