– ABU OMAR AL-BAGHDADI – HAMID AL-ZAWI

 

Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi was the person purported to be the leader (Amir) of the former Mujahideen Shura Council – Consultative Council of Mujahedeen, an umbrella organization composed of eight groups that oppose the USA military presence in Iraq.

It is assumed that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the so called “Islamic Khalifat of Iraq”, declared allegiance to him in 11/2006. When Abu Ayyub al-Masri was forced to flee Iraq, sometime in mid 2008, he handed over his direct authorization, so to speak, to Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi.

On the body of Al Qaeda’s “Information Minister” Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, who was killed in Baghdad, on 05/02/2007, investigators found letters from Ayman Al Zawahiri greeting Al-Baghdadi and providing advice and inquire on the state of the insurgency in Iraq,.

On 05/03/2007 the Iraqi authorities already claimed, the first time, they have captured Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi but the detained suspect was identified, eventually, as Khalid al-Mashadani. However, in 07/2007, the U.S. military reported that Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi never actually existed. USA claimed that if there was indeed, an Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi, it was Abdul Latif al-Jubouri himself. Anyhow, videotapes of propaganda encouraging young Iraqis to join the Islamic State of Iraq in fighting Americans were continuously distributed in Iraq with the voice of some one called himself Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi.

In 03/2008 the spokesman for an insurgent organization HAMAS AL-IRAQ, that is hostile to the Coalition, claimed that Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi is a fabrication made by Al Qaeda to put a false Iraqi face to their organization. But on 05/07/2008 the Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya, citing information obtained from an Iraqi police official, identified Al-Baghdadi as Hamid Dawoud al-Zawi. Zawi was a retired police officer from the Haditha Police Department, who worked after retirement as an oil heater repairman in the Anbar town of Haqlaniyah, West of Baghdad.

“Hamid al Zawi was one of the few senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders who could meet the criteria of being descended from Hussein, that was a key part of Baghdadi’s biography,” the military official said. Tracing lineage back to Hussein Ali, the grandson of Prophet Mohammad, is a requirement for leadership of the Islamic State.

On 04/23/2009 the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced, officially, the arrest of the real Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi in Northern Baghdad. The statement was later proven wrong.

Eventually the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on state television, on Monday 04/19/2010, that Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi was killed north of the capital Baghdad (see – Enouncement 04.19.10 ).

Abu Omar Al-Baghdadi’s widow, identified only as WJ, was sentenced in Baghdad, on Thursday 06/30/2011, to life imprisonment. She was found guilty of co-operating in terrorist attacks carried out by Baghdadi, including controlling the cash and suicide vests. The court also sentenced Hasna Ali Yahya, a mother of three and the Yemeni wife of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, to life jail term. Hasna Ali Yahya was convicted “according to article four of the anti-terrorism law for (providing) cover and shelter to the terrorist group of Abu Ayyub al-Masri.”

* Related topics – 

• 04/2008 -DOUBLE BOMBS ATTACK IN IRAQ  
  08/2007 -LIFE THREAT – LARS VILKS  
  07/2007 -JIHAD NEW FRONT   

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