{"id":2582,"date":"2009-05-26T14:00:51","date_gmt":"2009-05-26T19:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2016-05-28T14:04:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T19:04:02","slug":"struggling-al-mustafa-army-pledges-kurds-will-take-ninawa-province-over-our-dead-bodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/?p=2582","title":{"rendered":"Struggling al-Mustafa Army Pledges Kurds Will Take Ninawa Province \u201cOver Our Dead Bodies\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor<\/strong><\/p>\n

May 26, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

A spokesman for Iraq\u2019s Jaysh al-Mustafa (Mustafa Army) used an internet question and answer session to admit setbacks but vowed to prevent the Kurdish takeover of the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa (Nineveh), the main base of the Sunni militant group (Media Commission of the Al-Mustafa Army in Iraq, May 15).<\/p>\n

\"al-Mustafa<\/a>According to the spokesman, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Iraqi, the group was formed in Ninawa Governate two months after the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. At first they operated under the name \u201cal-Fatihin Army\u201d during their earliest operations in Mosul. In time, the group expanded to Salah al-Din Governate and even into the outskirts of Baghdad. This continued until April 2004, when \u201coccupation forces broke into our locations and arrested our most prominent leaders.\u201d After this serious setback, the group slowly recovered and today consists of 12 \u201cbrigades,\u201d though only four of these are operational due to \u201cpoor resources and lack of funding.\u201d\u00a0 Shaykh Abu-Abdallah al-Ansari is the Amir of the Al-Mustafa Army in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Abu Abd al-Rahman also attributed the lack of internet videos depicting al-Mustafa Army operations to \u201cweak financial capabilities\u201d and \u201cthe geographical nature of the city Mosul,\u201d though the latter point was not explained. The Mustafa Army relies on \u201cthe charitable people in Ninawa Governorate\u201d for their funding, though these contributions have declined dramatically after threats were made to those funding the group. This has resulted in a decrease in the number of operations. Al-Mustafa Army supports the use of martyrdom operations (suicide bombings), but has not conducted any due to a \u201clack of assets.\u201d Despite this, Abu Abd al-Rahman insists the jihad in Iraq is mandatory for every man, woman and child.<\/p>\n

Admission of new fighters is made on the recommendation of a trusted person or a mosque cleric. Recruits must meet certain requirements regarding religious observance, good manners, etc. Abu Abd al-Rahman denies that foreign fighters are in the ranks of al-Mustafa Army. \u201cIn fact, we have not received any admission request from expatriate brothers, but we do not deny their fraternity and we are grateful to them.\u201d The group claims to have Kurds as well as Arabs as fighters and leaders.<\/p>\n

Abu Abd al-Rahman commented on al-Mustafa\u2019s relations with a number of other Iraqi armed groups:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Army of Men of the Naqshabandi Order (a Sufi militant group): Al-Mustafa Army has good relations with this group and is ready to cooperate with them in all jihad activities.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Gaza Martyrs Brigade: Three individuals broke from al-Mustafa two months ago and have since formed this group. \u201cWe wish them success, but we confirm there has not been any split in the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Shi\u2019a:\u00a0 Al-Mustafa Army has \u201cno relations\u201d with the Shi\u2019a public and the group does not fight them. However, the group considers the \u201cPersian Safavids\u201d (a reference to Shi\u2019a militias) to be their enemies.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ba\u2019athists:\u00a0 Abu Abd al-Rahman denies the Mustafa Army is composed of Ba\u2019athists, saying these are rumors designed to undermine the group, though it \u201cdoes not belittle\u201d the Ba\u2019athists.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI – al-Qaeda affiliated):\u00a0 The group has good relations with ISI and has worked with several of its field commanders in the past.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Sahwa<\/em> (Awakening) Councils:\u00a0 These individuals have made mistakes by joining with the occupation forces, but the \u201cdoor of repentance\u201d remains open for them.<\/p>\n

Though the group has suffered from security round-ups and financial shortfalls, it is still determined to resist efforts by the Kurdish Regional Government of northern Iraq and its peshmerga militias to annex parts of Ninawa like Sinjar, Rabi\u2019ah and the Ninawa plain. \u201cWe have future plans to anticipate events and pre-empt any attempt to tear up the governate of Ninawa, which will have to be over our dead bodies\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was first published in the May 26, 2009 issue of the Jamestown Foundation\u2019s Terrorism Monitor. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew McGregor May 26, 2009 A spokesman for Iraq\u2019s Jaysh al-Mustafa (Mustafa Army) used an internet question and answer session to admit setbacks but vowed to prevent the Kurdish takeover of the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa (Nineveh), the main … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq","category-kurds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aberfoylesecurity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}