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RAND Voices of Jihad Database

On March 14, 2005, a newly formed insurgency group in Iraq, Jama'at Jund Al-Sahaba, The Army Squad of The Companions of the Prophet Mohammad, through its emir, Sheikh Abu Abbas Al-Omari, issued a communiqué claiming responsibility for an attack in Mosul last Thursday.

In what is titled their first communiqué, Jama'at Jund Al-Sahaba explain that their mission is "to defend and protect our religion and stop the rising storm that is coming from the Shiites to invade the land of the Muslims." The group reviles the Shi'a, to which they use the derogatory term "Rafadites," whom they believe "are marching according to paths that will annihilate the People of the Sunni sect in Iraq," and whose contingent in the National Guards "are full of hatred towards the Sunnis, and as a result they raped the women, they beat the "Shioukh" (venerable gentlemen) and the "Imams" (prayer leaders)."

The attack in Mosul against the "rejectionists" was carried out to punish the Shi'a that "antagonized the Muslims and cursed the Companions of the Prophet Mohammed the Prophet of God." It seems that the conquest they reference is the suicide bombing at a Shi'a mourners tent that killed 51 people and injured 77.

Furthermore, the group promises that the Mosul attack is just the beginning, and they state that: "we promise the Rafidites that we will escalate the operations against them, if they will not stop their hostility and transgression."

A full translation of the the message is provided to our Intel Service members.

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