Pakistan arrests a curious group of Swedish and Turkish nationals

Associated Press via Fox News.

Much of the web presence of al-Qa'ida and affiliated Sunni groups is run from Turkey, with assistants in Germany, Sweden, and the UK.

Update: A Swedish paper, Aftonbladet, says the ex-Guantanamo Swede Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. They quote an anti-Guantanamo pressure group who in turn quote the guy's father in Sweden.

Update: The story broke when some official in Pakistan gave AP a list of the names of those arrested. It turns out that they were picked up "last week at a checkpoint in the southern town of Dera Ghazi Khan" according to the Pakistani news website The Nation.

Update: Sweden confirms 3 nationals held in Pakistan from Dawn News.

Update: All the big news organs now have this story. Mehdi-Mohammed Ghezali is indeed one of those arrested.

Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the UK

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is the head of a pseudo-charity in Libya, called the Gaddafi Development Foundation, which says it is mediating a "reconciliation" between Tripoli and more than 1000 members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who are now in Libyan prisons. After publicly recanting and foreswearing violence, they will be let out of prison. The story is being covered by two Arab newspapers in London (Ash-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Quds al-Arabi), whose reports are corroborated by one of the most senior al-Qa'ida mouthpieces in Londonistan. The UK is currently harbouring at least nine LIGF members:

GHUMA ABD’RABBAH, Birmingham
ABDULBASIT ABDULRAHIM, London and Birmingham
ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-FAQIH, Birmingham
FARAJ FARAJ HUSSEIN AL-SA’IDI, possibly Manchester
MAFTAH MOHAMED ELMABRUK, London
MOHAMMED BENHAMMEDI, Midlands somewhere
ABDELRAZAG ELSHARIF ELOSTA, London
ABDULBAQI MOHAMMED KHALED, Birmingham
TAHIR NASUF, Manchester

Those nine are all under worldwide embargo by the UN Security Council as known affiliates of al-Qa'ida. Without a doubt, Saif al-Islam has already told Brown and company what he wants done about those guys, and they will do their best to fulfill his wishes. Specifically, my guess is that Whitehall will start to play up the reconciliation and put on a show of regarding those guys as retroactively blameless.

Faraj al-Sa'idi has been convicted and sentenced in Italy. It is possible that he is the "AF" whom the UK recently released even while they conceal his identity from their own people. The release could well be part of London's secret arrangements with Tripoli.

At least two top-rung al-Qa'ida bosses are ex-LIFG: Abu Yahya al-Libi (Hassan Qaid) and Atiya Abdur-Rahman. Those people won't approve of the UK's collaboration with the Libyan regime on behalf of BP.

Update: I cannot yet definitely identify "AF". The UNSC Committee 1267 says this about Sa'idi:

Name: 1: FARAJ 2: FARAJ 3: HUSSEIN 4: AL-SA’IDI
Name (original script):
فرج فرج حسين السعيدي
Title: na Designation: na
DOB: 28 Nov. 1980 POB: a) Libyan Arab Jamahiriya b) Gaza c) Jordan d) Palestine
Good quality a.k.a.:
a) Mohamed Abdulla Imad, born in Gaza
b) Muhamad Abdullah Imad, born in Jordan
c) Imad Mouhamed Abdellah, born in Palestine
d) Faraj Farj Hassan Al Saadi
Low quality a.k.a.:
a) Hamza Al Libi
b) Abdallah Abd al-Rahim
Nationality: Libyan
Passport no.: na National identification no.: na
Address:
a) Leicester, United Kingdom, (as at Jan. 2009)
b) Viale Bligny 42, Milan, Italy, (under a.k.a. Imad Mouhamed Abdellah)
Listed on: 12 Nov. 2003 (amended on 31 Jul. 2006, 21 Dec. 2007, 11 Aug. 2008, 30 Jan.
2009, 13 Feb. 2009)
Other information: Sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Court of first instance of Milan on 18 Dec. 2006. Sentenced in absentia to five years and ten months of imprisonment for membership of a terrorist association by the Appeal Court of Milan, Italy, on 7 Feb. 2008. Resident in the United Kingdom as at Jan. 2009 (since Mar. 2002).

An al-Qa'ida member comes in from the cold

I don't know anything about Fawwaz al-Otaibi who was wanted by KSA since February and who, some time between then and now, returned to KSA to surrender. But I'm curious about where he was immediately before he packed it in. Riyadh isn't saying. The February hotsheet, naming 83 Saudis and 2 Yemenis, says that al-Otaibi's last known location was in Iran. That could mean that he had entered Iran openly, at a border station or airport. But was he en route to some other place, such as Pakistan? If anybody knows, get in touch please.

Zawahiri's despairing "Path of Doom" video

It's about Pakistan, where the Taliban is being mowed down by Pakistani and tribal forces alike -- and even by one another, owing to the rivalry and disarray that has followed the elimination of Baitullah. Zawahiri and the other surviving Arab fugitives can do nothing about it. The 8-page English transcript can be read here. Zawahiri's desperation is evident.

Wanted: Bajnaf Khamisi

Bajnaf Mselem Swaleh Mahdi Khamisi



Disappeared from his residence in Malindi, Kenya in August 2008, at which time he was in contact with Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.

Khamisi is wanted in Kenya.

"Tawhid and Jihad Group, Jerusalem"

A four-page pdf document has appeared on a serious al-Qa'ida website, claiming to announce the formation of a new Sunni outfit calling itself Jama'ah at-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Bayt al-Maqdis. Bayt al-Maqdis means Jerusalem. The other part of the name is the same as that of Zarqawi's group before it subordinated itself to Bin Ladin and renamed itself al-Qa'ida in Iraq.

Jund Ansar Allah gets shot up in Rafah

This al-Qa'ida fan club in the Gaza Strip has clashed with rival Islamist terrorists Hamas at the Ibn Taymiyah mosque in Rafah, leaving about 14 dead and 120 wounded. Hamas is reporting only one fatality among their personnel. The violence was incited or provoked by the Friday khutbah from the mosque's imam, who is also the head of JAA, called Abdul-Latif Musa alias Abu al-Noor al-Maqdisi.

As far as I know, JAA (formerly Salafi Jihad) had no sponsorship from outside Gaza. But because of its self-conscious imitation of al-Qa'ida, and its nonstop kowtowing to Bin Ladin and the other big Qa'ida names, JAA does have some following among the world's couch jihadis. Their reaction to this news might be worth watching. Qa'ida fans have been on Hamas's case before.

The mainstream press has little to report except what Hamas tells them, but a video of the first part of that khutbah has reached YouTube.

Update:
According to Hamas, 21 are now dead and Abdul-Latif Musa is one of them.

Update:
JAA's website went down not long after the battle, and now carries only the statement below. The author's main purpose seems to be to contradict Hamas's claims that JAA was planning to bomb some Hamas installations, and that JAA was subordinate to al-Qa'ida. He ends by saying that the group is awaiting a new "emir" (to replace Musa I presume).

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيـــم

(وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ * فَرِحِينَ بِمَا آتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ * يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِنِعْمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَفَضْلٍ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ )


رحم الله شهدائنا .. والله الذي لا إله الا هوة الذي رفع السمواات الطباق بلا عمد

لنأثرن لدمائكم ولنرملن نسائهم كما رملو نساء مجاهدينا

غزونا بني صهيون في عقل دارهم ورجعنا لاهلينا سالمين غانمين .. فقتلو علي أيديكم في ليله الجمعة وفي هذه الأيام المباركات

كل هذا لأجل الدعاية التي نشرتها ان حماس تريد ضم المسجد الي وزارة الأوقاف

حصدت مع قراراها أرواح المجاهدين والمدنين تحت بند أننا قاعدة وتكفيرين

فقد كررناها مراراً وتكراراً انه لسنا علي علاقة بأي تفجير حدث داخل قطاع غزة ، وكان من ابرز كلمات أميرنا ابو عبد الله رحمه الله تعالي نحسبه شهيد ً ولا نزكي علي الله احدا ، كان يقول للشباب المجاهد

الذي اراد ان ينضم الي جماعة جند انصار الله وكان يريد التكفير ،، كان يرده ويقول له انت لست جاهز للعمل لدينا

ويكفي حركه حماس شرفاً ،، ان ابا عبد الله كان من أهم المطلوبين لإسرائيل وكانت سيرته الجهاديه والعسكرية لامعة

حيث كان يعد جنرالاً في الأمور العسكرية ومتخصصاً في صناعة الطلقات.. وعمل لدي حماس وقدم لديها خبراته أهمها ان اوصل اليهم صالة التدريب بالمحاكاة "السمليشن" التي رأيتم مجاهدي جند انصار الله يتدربون عليهم في إصدارتنا

فكان جزاءه أن قتلوه ، عندما علمو أن جماعة جند انصار الله ستقوى اكثر واكثر علي الساحة وان من يريد ان يجاهد بحق يعلم

ان طريق الديموقراطية والتشريعي والانتخابات والترهات التي تجري بينهم وبين فتح وخلافاتهم الداخلية ليس هي طريق المجاهدين الذي انضموا للقسام لأجله

ومن خلال موقعنا نؤكد رسمياً ونكررها ثانية اننا لم نكن ننوى ان نفجر اي مقر امني او نهاجم اي عنصر من حماس كما ذكر المدعو فتحى حماد

ولم يكن لنا اي ضلع نهائياً في اي تفجير حدث علي الساحة الفلسطينية ، ولم نكفر احد ، ولسنا تبعاً للقاعدة ، هذا كان قرار اميرنا ابو عبد الله

ونحن الآن بانتظار أميرنا الجديد

وحسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل


وترقبووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووووو ردنـــا

Update:
The propaganda hub for the Egyptian side of al-Qa'ida, Hani al-Siba'i al-Londonistani, laments the elimination of his fellow bloodthirsty megalomaniac Abdul-Latif Musa, and condemns Hamas for deviating from its original Ikhwan manifesto.

In summary, Jund Ansar Allah was a bunch of local al-Qa'ida wannabes. Various other interests are spinning the group this way and that to fit their own agendas, but in the end JAA was nothing. Those rabble could all still be in the Ibn Taymiyah mosque, screaming their prayers for genocide around the world, and suckholing to Bin Ladin and Zarqawi just as so many other couch jihadis do. But their fantasies got the better of them, and they challenged Hamas, and they were dead within hours at the hands of the "resistance".

Update 5 September 2009:
Quite a few al-Qa'ida people have slammed Hamas for this incident, including Hussein bin Mahmoud. There's a video coming too: