Baghdad: Terrorist leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi planned to try and destroy the relationship between the United States and its Shiite allies in Iraq and help start a war between America and Iran, according to what appeared to be a summary of an Al Qaida in Iraq document released by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki yesterday.
Documents purporting to reflect Al Qaida policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussain were found in Al Zarqawi's hideout following an air strike that killed the terrorist mastermind, Al Maliki's office said.
One said the US military's programme to train Iraqi security forces to replace American troops was working, according to the announcement.
"Generally speaking and despite the gloomy present situation, we find that the best solution in order to get out of this crisis is to involve the US forces in waging a war against another country or any hostile groups," the document said, as quoted by Al Maliki's office.
There was no way to confirm the authenticity of the information attributed to Al Qaida in the announcement, which said Iraqi forces that took part in the killing of Al Zarqawi found "a number of documents" that provide "the broad guidelines of the programme of the Saddamists and the takfiris inside Al Zarqawi's group."
Takfiri is a reference to an extremist ideology that urges Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims. It is the ideology that many Iraqis, especially the Shiites, use to describe Al Zarqawi and his followers.
According to the document, insurgents were being weakened by operations against them and by their failure to attract recruits. To give new impetus to the insurgency, they would have to change tactics, it added.
"We mean specifically attempting to escalate the tension between America and Iran, and America and the Shiites in Iraq," it said, especially among moderate followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani.
"Creating disputes between America and them could hinder the US cooperation with them, and subsequently weaken this kind of alliance between Shiites and the Americans," it said, adding that "the best solution is to get America involved in a war against another country and this would bring benefits." They included "opening a new front" for the US military and releasing some of the "pressure exerted on the resistance."
It pointed to clashes in 2004 between US forces and followers of anti-US cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and his Mahdi militia as evidence of the benefits of such a strategy.
It said the "results obtained during the struggle between US army and Al Mahdi army is an example of the benefits to be gained by such struggle".
US releases photo of successor
The US military on Thursday released pictures of the man it said was the successor of slain Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
US-led coalition forces spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the new leader, Abu Ayoub Al Masri, alias Shaikh Abu Hamza Al Mohajer, was believed to be operating out of Baghdad.
Al Qaida "on its website has named him as Abu Hamza Al Mohajer, but we believe that he is one and the same," Caldwell said.
Caldwell said he was believed to have become a militant in 198 and is a senior "Al Qaida operative, a direct associate of Al Zarqawi and facilitator of foreign fighters from Syria."
