U.S. Tells of Iraq Insurgents' New Tactics ("Zarqawi memo")

[sabra]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaeda5may05,0,7918693.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines


U.S. Tells of Iraq Insurgents' New Tactics
Memo released by the military is attributed to Zarqawi's group. It calls for civil war with Shiites.

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military on Thursday revealed parts of a memo attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq that outlines plans to ignite sectarian war by targeting Shiite Muslims and to shift the battle toward the capital and religiously mixed parts of the country.

The memo, which the military said was seized during a raid last month, ordered followers to "make the struggle entirely between Shiites and the mujahedin," as the militants refer to themselves, and lambasted moderate Sunni groups. It included a call for insurgents to "displace the Shiites and displace their shops and businesses from our areas. Expel those black market sellers of gas, bread or meat or anyone that is suspected of spying against us."

The memo, if authentic, provides some of the strongest evidence to date to support an accusation U.S. officials repeatedly have made — that Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has been deliberately trying to exploit the country's simmering sectarian and ethnic tensions to spark a full-blown civil war.

The authenticity of the memo could not be verified independently, but its language appears to resemble that of Iraqi insurgency material posted on the Internet and distributed on fliers. Moreover, the memo's call to shift the focus of attacks from Americans and toward Shiites appears to reflect the reality on the ground.

[rodeodance]

1. I want them to talk of the 'Downing Street MemoS"!!

[sabra]

2. that's old news, didn't you get the memo?

:sarcasm:

[5X]

3. Was this on Al Queda letterhead?

Abu Alice al-Tulsawi

[bemildred]

4. This is strategy, not tactics.

Morons can't even write good propaganda.