The Mujahideen Army (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

:جيش المجاهدين; lit. Army of the Holy Warrior) was a

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

militant group in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. The group first emerged in late 2004.Group Profile: Mujahideen Army

MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (TKB) was an online portal containing information on terrorist incidents, leaders, groups, and related court cases. It was active from September 2004 to March 2008 and is now defunct, but the group profiles that we ...

The Mujahideen Army is one of the founding members of the Jihad and Reform Front as well as a member of the Political Council for the Iraqi Resistance (PCIR). The Mujahideen Army is comprised almost exclusively of native Iraqi Sunni Muslims, including ex-members of Saddam Hussein's military and security agencies such as Fedayeen Saddam,

Special Republican Guard The Iraqi Special Republican Guard (SRG) (), also known as the Special Forces Brigade of the Presidential Palace, Republican Guard Special Protection Forces, or the Golden Division, was an elite praetorian guard unit founded in either early 199 ...

Republican Guard A republican guard, sometimes called a national guard, is a state organization of a country (often a republic, hence the name ''Republican'') which typically serves to protect the head of state and the government, and thus is often synonymous wit ...

and the Special Security Organization.

Ideology

Religious in the nature, the Mujahideen Army takes on a more nationalist tone in its rhetoric. The militant group is believed to have an ideology similar to that of fellow Iraqi insurgent group, the

Islamic Army in Iraq The Islamic Army in Iraq (, IAI) was an underground Islamist militant organization formed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led Coalition forces, and the subsequent collapse of the Ba'athist regime headed by Saddam Hussein. ...

(IAI).State of the Sunni Insurgency in Iraq: August 2007
NEFA Foundation, August 15, 2007 In May 2006 the Mujahideen Army released a statement condemning Iraq's ethnic and sectarian infighting and urged Iraqis to work "with a sense of national and religious responsibility for the sake of future generations." In late January 2006, the Mujahideen Army issued a communiqué calling for attacks against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, in response to the publication of cartoons depicting the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, mos ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

in several Danish newspapers.Communiqué from the Mujahideen Army of Iraq
GlobalTerrorAlert.com, January 30, 2006 They also threatened attacks following controversial comments made by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

in September 2006.Mujahideen's Army threatens Pope with suicide attack
''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English language, English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''Th ...

'', September 16, 2006 They announced their intention to "destroy their cross in the heart of Rome… and to hit the Vatican." The Mujahideen Army have also taken the unique step of appealing directly to the American public via several English-language videos purportedly produced and distributed by the group."The Mujahideen Army" Releases Video in English

SITE Institute SITE Intelligence Group is an American for-profit consultancy group that tracks online activity of white supremacist and jihadist organizations. It is led by the Israeli analyst Rita Katz and based in Bethesda, Maryland. From 2002 to 2008, Katz h ...

, March 22, 2005

Attacks

The Mujahideen Army has taken credit for numerous attacks against American forces in Iraq. The majority of these claims are issued in communiqués or videos posted on

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

websites. Some notable attacks in which the Mujahideen Army has claimed responsibility: * The January 2007 downing of a Black Hawk helicopter north of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

.Mujahideen Army in Iraq Issues Video of Downing a Black Hawk in al-Niba'i

, February 26, 2007 * Shooting down an American Apache helicopter in January 2006.The Mujahideen Army Issues a Video Depicting the Downing of an Apache Helicopter in al-Taramiya

, January 16, 2006

Leadership

Little is publicly known about the Mujahideen Army's leadership and command structure. In October 2005, the U.S. military announced that it had captured Ahmad Ni'mah Khudayyir Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Shihab), a group "lieutenant and propaganda chief" in the Abu Ghraib district west of

.The Jaysh al-Mujahideen terrorist lieutenant and propaganda chief captured
GlobalSecurity.org In a January 2006 statement urging the Mujahideen Army to join the then-fledgling Mujahideen Shura Council, al-Qaida in Iraq identified the

emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

of the Mujahideen Army as "The Leaping Lion."Joining al-Qaeda, Declining al-Qaeda
ThreatsWatch.org, January 31, 2006 American intelligence analyst Malcolm W. Nance claims that Mujahideen Army of Iraq was a liaison between former Baath militias like the Fedayeen Saddam and the Islamists. However, most Mujahideen Army commanders appear to be former regime soldiers who were anti-Baathist politically and became Islamist mujahideens after they left army service following the 2003 U.S. invasion.Malcolm Nance, ''Terrorists of Iraq'', 2014. Mujahideen Army spokespeople like Abdul-Rahman Qaisi and Abdullah Umari have been critical of the Baath party and want to turn Iraq into an Islamic emirate free of control from foreign occupation.

References

External links

*
Al Qaeda in Iraq: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
, article by Peter & Paul Cruickshank, '' Mother Jones'', October 31, 2007 {{Armed Iraqi groups in the Iraq War and the Iraq Civil War Arab militant groups Factions in the Iraq War Rebel groups in Iraq Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011) Islamist insurgent groups 2004 establishments in Iraq Organizations designated as terrorist by Iraq Organizations based in Asia designated as terrorist