Islamic State in Iraq Responds to Iraq Study Group Report

On December 9, 2006, various Islamist websites posted a response by the Islamic State in Iraq to the Iraq Study Group report that was released December 6, 2006: "Now that the Allies' military command has realized the need for a quick withdrawal from the quagmire into which [the Allies] have stepped…, it has been discussing… how to prevent the mujahideen… and Muslims in Iraq from reaping the fruits of the blessed jihad."

The message accuses the Iraq Study Group of following in the footsteps of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The agreement, says the message, aimed to "carve the Islamic Ottoman Caliphate into [several] secular states submissive to the colonialist Crusaders," while the Iraq Study Group aimed "to prevent the mujahideen from overstepping the boundaries laid down by the Sykes-Picot Agreement…" The message says further: "Now that its wager on the Shi'ite government [of Iraq] has failed [to pay off]…, the American administration [is striving] to thwart… any attempt to... [establish] an Islamic State in the form of a aliphate in Iraq…"

The message also warns the mujahideen to beware these "schemes and plots, lest they become easy prey for the Crusader enemy," and urges them to prevent "the opportunists" from "reaping the fruits of their blessed Jihad."

Chechen Website Announces Successor to Abu Hafs

On December 10, 2006, a Chechen website supportive of the mujahideen announced that an individual named Muhannad will succeed Abu Hafs Al-Urduni, who commanded the Arab mujahideen in Chechnya until he was killed by Russian commando units on November 26, 2006. [1] According to the announcement, Muhannad has declared that [despite the death of Abu Hafs] the mujahideen will continue their plans to remove the Russian occupation.

The following is a picture of Muhannad.