Top gunman confessed to Syrian, Egyptian, Saudi funding – BOC
BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The head of the Islamic State of Iraq, who was arrested on April 29, 2009, confessed that his organization has been receiving two kinds of financial support; external from Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia; and internal through operations to steal civil servants’ salaries, Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) said on Monday. “Confessions made by Ahmed Abid Khameess al-Majmaee, known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, are part of Iraqi judiciary’s investigations,” General Qassim Atta said in a press conference in Baghdad attended by IraqiNews.com news agency. “I worked as a civil servant for al-Karama Company of the dissolved military industries commission,” al-Baghdadi said in a videotape that was shown during the conference. “In 2005, I started working for Al-Qaida in Iraq organization (AQI),” he said. “After that I was chosen to be the Ameer of the Organization, and I was called Abu Omar al-Baghdadi al-Husseini,” he added. The Islamic State of Iraq that was formed in October 2006 consists of seven armed groups, including the AQI, and they all commanded by detainee al-Baghdadi. “I was called al-Baghdadi to satisfy Sunnis, and al-Husseini to satisfy the rest of Iraq,” he explained. “I received instructions from a person in Iraq,” he proceeded. “Ameers of Iraqi regions are chosen according to the armed operations they conduct,” he noted. Concerning the relation between the AQI, the Islamic State of Iraq and the dissolved Baath Party, al-Baghdadi said, “The relation between them is the same, as they have the same funding sources and conduct combined operations.” He pointed out that a person who had met Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ordered him to conduct operations to escalate ordeal between Sunnis and Shiites, to separate Sunnis and to establish an Islamic state in their areas. “The Samarra explosions (Feb. 2006) were carried out after that,” al-Baghdadi elaborated. Journalists were not allowed to address questions during the conference, but General Atta told IraqiNews.com news agency that Iraqi security forces “arrested al-Baghdadi at a public yard in Baghdad’s al-Qahira neighborhood, near the judiciary institute and al-Nidaa Sunni mosque.” MH (S) / SS 1