These beheadings confirm my view that there is a split inside Al Qeade
between the Afgan and Iraqi branches. We get these killings of Shiites,
confirming continued support for Zarqawi's strategy of promoting
sectarian strife, with simultaneous calls for "unity".

Zaraqwi went out like a mob boss who ***** his mafia overlord.
Someone working for him tipped off the Iraqi government about what area
he was in, then the Iraqi government notifed the Americans, who
confirmed and exploited the intell.

Bin Laden would rather lay off on the sectarian provokations and focus
attacks more on Iraqi government and coalition targets.

If I am right, I Bin Laden efforts will be futile. Zarqawi set things
in motion that Bin Laden won't be able to control. It will be amusing
to see the jihadists split amoungst themslevse while they help people
turn away from the Islamic faith. These folks have done more to convert
Arabs to Christianity (would you follow a religion that advocates
killing amoungst your own community?) then what Saul could go if he
came back to life and started preaching with the help of God's
miracles.

I guess right now the Islamic faith is going through it's own version
of the "Wars of Religion"

===================================================================


Insurgents show 3 beheadings of Shiites on Internet

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Hamza Hendawi

Associated Press

Baghdad, Iraq - Insurgents signaled the fight is still on after Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi's death, posting an Internet video Saturday showing
the beheading of three alleged Shiite death squad members in revenge
for the deaths of Sunnis.

The video, as grisly as any that the al-Qaida in Iraq leader issued,
was clearly designed to quash hopes that the Sunni-dominated insurgency
might change tactics by ending attacks on Shiite civilians and
institutions, especially the police.

Fellow Sunni insurgent groups sent condolences for al-Zarqawi in
Internet messages Saturday and warned Sunnis not to cooperate with the
Iraqi government, an apparent call for unity three days after U.S.
forces killed the terror leader in a targeted airstrike.

The condolence statements came from the al-Qaida-linked Ansar
al-Sunnah, the group that posted the beheading video on a militant Web
site, and the head of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella
organization of five insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, that
al-Zarqawi helped found last year.

"Iraq is the front defense line for Islam and Muslims, so don't fail to
follow the path of the mujahedeen [holy warriors], the caravan of
martyrs and the faithful," said Abdullah bin Rashid al- Baghdadi, the
Shura Council's head.

Across Iraq, at least 24 people were killed in violence Saturday,
including a number of sectarian attacks.

Gunmen stopped a minivan carrying Sunnis on a highway near Baghdad,
ordered the passengers off and opened fire, killing four and wounding
one. In Baghdad, gunmen in two cars shot dead a Shiite metal worker and
wounded two others. Also in the capital, a roadside bomb exploded in
the mainly Shiite Karadah area, targeting a police patrol; five people
were killed and 14 wounded, including three officers.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed three Shiite butchers.

The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was the defining face of Iraq's
insurgency. His tirades against the nation's majority Shiites and calls
on the once- dominant minority Sunni Arabs to rise up and kill them
were matched by the killing of thousands of Shiites in attacks.

In contrast, Ansar al-Sunnah has largely refrained from killing
civilians. Made up mostly of homegrown Iraqi guerrillas, the group
instead has mostly gone after American and Iraqi forces as well as
Iraqis and foreigners employed by the U.S. military.

It was the first known footage of beheadings to be posted by any
insurgent group in months, and possibly timed to make clear to the U.S.
and Iraqi governments that there will be no change in tactics even
though al- Zarqawi is gone.

With its gruesome killings and militants chanting "Allahu Akbar," or
"God is Great," the 15-minute video illustrates the depth of
Shiite-Sunni rivalries.

It shows three men in military uniform, sitting on the ground with
their hands bound behind their backs in a small concrete room with
gunmen standing around them.

Under questioning, the men say they are members of the "Wolf Brigade,"
a special Iraqi police commando unit that Sunnis accuse of being a
front for Shiite militiamen who kill Sunni Arabs.

Text in the video says the three were part of a "Shiite death squad"
that kidnapped and killed Sunnis at checkpoints south of Baghdad in
March and April. It says they were among 10 police commandos captured
by Ansar al-Sunnah last month.

A militant off-camera asks them about the incident and other alleged
slayings of Sunnis. The men reply in low voices, looking terrified. One
mostly stares with his mouth hanging open.

"They [the Sunni] were beheaded by those who took and detained them,"
one of the three says. Next the video shows the three captives lying on
the ground outdoors. A militant sharpens a knife before he, with the
help of others, beheads the men one by one.

At the end of the tape, the group warns Iraqis against joining the
security forces: "Otherwise, you will live in terror until we eliminate
you and your fate will be in hell."