Filmed militants boast of bombs

By JUSTIN HUGGLER in Baghdad

A video secretly being distributed in Baghdad is evidence that foreign Islamic militants and Iraqi resistance fighters are now working together against the American occupation.

Hundreds of Iraqis have died in suicide bombings since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, but the identity of most of the bombers has remained shrouded in mystery.

The new video shows the faces of what it alleges are some of those bombers, in short videotaped statements. The video, which has been seen by the Independent, also includes what appears to be original video footage of rocket attacks and roadside bombings filmed from close-up by the insurgents themselves.

The commentary claims the video is produced by Jeish Ansar al-Sunna, a previously little-known group that claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing in the Arbil last month that killed more than 100.

In the video, the group claims responsibility for the killing of seven Spanish intelligence agents south of Baghdad in November, and produces some of their ID cards as evidence.

It claims that in a second ambush in the same area in January, it killed eight people who it claims were "Canadian and British intelligence agents".

Bank cards and frequent flyer membership cards of one man are shown in evidence. Nothing else is known about this alleged incident. Seven alleged suicide bombers are shown on the video. Most of the alleged suicide bombers are identifiable as Arabs from outside Iraq by their appearances, their accents, and in some cases their names.

One is identified with the distinctively Saudi name Abu Hafez al-Najdi.

Only one is identified as Iraqi: a Kurd from Arbil named only as Barwa. But unlike the others, his statement has been voiced over.

Not all the bombings identified are generally known to have happened. Among those that are, the alleged bomber who carried out the bombing of the Turkish Embassy on October 14 last year is identified as Abu Abdullah al-Doseri, a young man wearing a black turban, who appears to be a non-Iraqi Arab.

The alleged bomber responsible for an attack on a military base at Tal Afar, near Mosul, in which 58 United States soldiers and three Iraqis were confirmed as wounded, is identified as Abu Thabet al-Muhajer. The video claims far higher casualties in both cases.

But while most of the suicide bombers appear to be non-Iraqis, a group shown planning to carry out rocket attacks appear to be Iraqi. Four men, their faces masked with Arab keffiyehs, are shown with Kalashnikovs and four large rockets. Speaking with a heavy Iraqi accent, the leader says: "We are from the Abu Hanifa battalion of Jeish Ansar al-Sunna. We are going to attack the enemy."

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Herald Feature: Iraq