A library photo for Iraqi resistance fighters

By Namir Al-Hijazi, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, May 30 (IslamOnline.net) – Iraqi Sunni resistance factions in Ninawa and Diyala provinces declared on Sunday, May 30, that they unified ranks under a political and military wings called "the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance" and "Saladin Al-Ayyubi Brigades" respectively.

"We promise you our Iraqi brethren that the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (Jama’) will usher in the end of the [U.S.-led] occupiers," the new body said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net.

The political wing’s motto features the Basmalla (In the Name of Allah) written at the peak of an Iraq map with a fist carrying a white flag piercing its middle and the word "Jama’" written alongside, in reference to the closely-knit resistance.

The military wing, however, designed its slogan as two crossed swords with a hamlet beneath symbolizing Muslim leader Saladin Al-Ayyubi.

The statement said the Front’s factions have been forced to work underground since the start of the U.S.-led occupation on April 9, 2003, and have carried out a number of unclaimed resistance operations.

"The resistance’s quantitative operations and their heavy blows to the occupation have paved the way to go public," it read.

Stamped with the seal of the Front’s political wing, the statement said the factions’ blueprint is based on "a realistic and future-oriented vision" to stand up to the U.S.-led occupation "which is a drain on the country’s wealth and resources".

It also warned of "Zionist penetration of Iraq and the entire region with the vicious scheme of pitting people against each other."

Tons of expired Israeli foodstuffs had flooded Iraqi markets since the first days of U.S.-led occupation, Iraqi Health Ministry sources confirmed on September 18.

Immediately after the fall of Baghdad, Israeli companies and intelligence elements were reportedly housed in the famous Baghdad Hotel which was rented by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and some American reconstruction firms.

A hotel employee told IOL Tuesday, June 24, on condition of anonymity, there were "increasing whispers that they were here to protect Israeli companies that rented several rooms in the hotel.

A center of the Washington-based and Mossad-linked Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) was opened in Baghdad, in a provocative move seen by Iraqi academics as the beginning of an Israeli scheme to infiltrate the Iraqi society.

In an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahoront on Saturday, June 21, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary John Taylor invited Israeli companies to join hands in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Resistance Operations

The Front said the factions have carried out 13 resistance operations from May 5 through 24, 2004.

They were concentrated in the two cities of Mosul, Ninawa, some 420km north of Baghdad, and Baquba, Diyala, some 65km northeast of Baghdad.

To mention but a few examples, the statement recited the shelling of the U.S.-led occupation authorities' headquarters in Mosul with mortar shells.

The Front also claimed the killing of eight U.S. intelligence agents in Al-Fudayliya district in Mosul on May 24.

On May 15, it said, a U.S. soldier was killed and an all-terrain Hummer destroyed near Al-Mamoun district in Mosul.

In Baquba, the brigades bombed a Hummer and killed the U.S. soldiers inside, and mortared Al-Faris airport.

However, the Front distanced itself from any assassination attempt on the lives of members of the U.S.-appointed Interim Governing Council or Iraqi officials.

Iraqi resistance operations started shortly after American tanks rolled into Baghdad, and continued unabated.

Most of the resistance groups were believed to be five to ten-member teams planning, financing and commandeering their operation in isolation from others.

Later on, more Iraqis joined hands and the resistance became more organized and effective.

On Saturday, May 8, Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites formed a pan-religious body to stream efforts for ending the occupation.