Do As I Say, Not As I Do
No doubt about it, he will be missed. If not for his acumen in demonstrating the efficacy of careful preparation and handling of explosives, then most certainly for his clever ability to recruit prospective jihadis to the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Handling explosives certainly must be tricky business, since it happens time and again that bomb enthusiasts planning to disrupt the life-plans of those whom they consider hated enemies, manage to blow themselves to smithereens.
While ISIL will undoubtedly miss the charisma of an able jihadi recruiter, the chuckling comment of an Iraqi army officer who had been brought, along with other Iraqi military, to the scene of the eruption, that the Sunni Islamist instructor's clumsiness -- whose tutelage of new recruits was adding to the instability of the Shia-led government in Iraq -- gave him great pleasure to note that the man was "able to kill the bad guys for once".
The instructor would have taken great umbrage at that observation, but then, he's no longer around to do so. He sacrificed himself in his selfless dedication to teaching new jihadis the nuts and bolts of mass killing. His demonstration was impeccable, but for the fact that he inadvertently mishandled his tools of destruction, to prematurely take himself and 21 recruits to inglorious death. It remains to be seen whether ISIS will solemnly declare them all "martyrs".
The resulting blast did alert Iraqi authorities to the presence of the rural training camp located innocently enough in an orchard, just north of Baghdad. In the event, after their hurried arrival, close to two dozen jihadis were arrested, among them wounded insurgents attempting to painfully hobble themselves away from the scene of accidental slaughter.
The fatal lesson in what not to do, occurred the very same day that the speaker of the Iraqi parliament escaped unhurt from a roadside bomb attack on his motorcade in the city of Mosul. He was particularly loathed by the terrorists who consider him a traitor, as a prominent Sunni, making common cause with the Shia-led government.
Win some, lose some. The al-Qaeda-linked ISIS (now in the bad books of the al-Qaeda leadership) were scoring pretty well in the last few months, having realized some notable gains in Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province. With the use of heavy weapons and ferocious determination, they took control of key intersections and local authorities' offices. The situation was eventually reversed in Ramadi.
But ISIS has made quite a few inroads in Syria, where they joined the Sunni Islamist terror militias intent on removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power, and installing instead an Islamist base for fanatical Sunnis craving the opportunity to create their burgeoning Caliphate there with the intent of spreading their version of Sharia Islam throughout the Middle East.
This is a Middle East that has become a Byzantine tangled web of intrigue, hatred and violence unparalleled in the modern world.
Labels: Conflict, Iraq, Islamists, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, February 11, 2014
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