Word: bara
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...have surfaced as potentially rising stars. (Al-Qaeda in Iraq constantly changes its commanders - and switches their names - for security reasons and to throw the U.S. off track.) Whether any of these personalities will attain Zarqawi's superstar-jihadi status remains to be seen. But TIME spoke with Abu Bara, an insurgent commander in Zarqawi's organization, and came up with these assessments of the most prominent commanders...
...According to Abu Bara, before the announcement of Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as the new head, Abu Abdul Rahman al Iraqi was standing in as the "emergency emir" in charge of al-Qaeda in Iraq (a.k.a., al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia). He has been a long-standing commander of al-Qaeda in Iraq, having had positions as the emir in charge of Anbar province and the emir in charge of Samarra, north of Baghdad, where the shrine bombing occurred in late February. (It is unclear if he had a hand in that in that incident, which brought Iraq closer...
...been mentioned by the U.S. military and by some other news organizations as a potential successor to Zarqawi. But TIME's sources warn against giving those reports too much credence. The name al Masri, which simply means "the Egyptian," didn't register as of particular importance with Abu Bara...
...different groups. The move was in reaction to pressure to put an Iraqi face on the insurgency. ("Al Baghdadi" implies he is from Baghdad.) At the beginning, five groups were represented on the council, including Al Qaeda in Iraq. The number of groups has expanded to nine, says Abu Bara. The groups are all Islamic hardline fundamentalist fighters with names like Brigade of Abu Bakr the Salafi and Battalion of the Foreigners. At the time it was formed, Zarqawi named Abu Abdullah Rasheed al Baghdadi (who had until then been known as Abu Hamza al Baghdadi) to head the council...
...death of Zarqawi, says Al-Qaeda in Iraq commander Abu Bara, will not change the role of the "Arab" (non-Iraqi) fighters in what remains of Zarqawi's group. "The organization is not ready to give up on the Arab mujhideen whatever the cause," he says. Also, says Abu Bara, the financing from other Arab states will continue to come in for Al-Qaeda in Iraq because, though Zarqawi was the head of the organization, he was not in charge of the finances. That fundraising mechanism, therefore, continues to function. On Saturday, many Islamic resistance websites posted a condolence letter...