Worse "al-Qaeda" ...

The new Iraqi Prime Minister Heider al-Abadi is trying to form a government of national consent

The goal is to restore peace between Shiites and Sunnis in the country. And thereby weaken the positions of the Islamic State (IG) group, which at the end of June proclaimed Caliphate, headed by Caliph Ibrahim, in the controlled territory of Iraq and Syria. The ideas, principles and practice of the XXI century Caliphate was versed in The New Times

The militants of the Islamic State shoot hostages, presumably employees of the Iraqi special services (photos posted in June 2014 on the Jihadist website of Wlyayat Salahuddin) /Photo: AP

“This is an apocalyptic organization with ideas akin to a terrible court. They are worse than Al-Qaeda, ”said Chak Hage, Minister of Defense of the United States about the Islamic State Group.

For Abu Bakra al-Baghdadi, the leader of the IG, who declared himself a caliph Ibrahim, these words, especially about al-Qaeda, as a compliment. “Go to the jackals,” Az-Baghdadi said to the current al-Qaeda leader Aiman ​​Al-Zavakhiri last winter, when he demanded that IS “not disgrace Islam” and leave Syria. The Islamists have the time to overthrow the previous authorities. “Everyone wins in the count,” Al-Baghdadi wrote on his banner. How much can jihad lead? It is time to build your state, land and resources are already there.

At first, al-Baghdadi called his detachments “Islamic state of Iraq and Levant” (ISIS). Now it is just the “Islamic state” (IG)-Al-Baghdadi is confident in the growth of new territories, a real caliphate-he is not only in the center of not only the Levant, but the whole world. This crazy project did not dare to dream even Ben Laden; The Taliban, occupying 90 % of the territory of Afghanistan, - and he behaves more restrained, claiming only to the "emirate". IS creates a new myth about the “sources of Islam” for the sake of conquering “all lands belonging to Muslims” - in Asia, Europe and Africa - cancels geographical maps and borders: today the north of Iraq and Eastern Syria are included in the IG, i.e. Al-Baghdadi united the Sunnits representing the majority in Syria and the minority in Iraq-now they are all citizens of the caliphate. Al-Baghdadi does not pay attention to the national boundaries and takes into account only religious. His dream: to expand the caliphate on Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt and Turkey. “Let's get to Rome,” Caliph Ibrahim promised. Cruel death is a symbol of its fighters, and at the same time a challenge to the rest of the world.

Cunning charismatic

It all started in 2003: in the ranks of anti-American resistance in Iraq, a unit controlled by Al-Qaeda appears in which 32-year-old Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi fights, a native of Samarra, a former clergyman who later defended a dissertation at the University of Baghdad. In 2010-he is already a field commander; Taking the brothers of the reign of Jihad in Iraq, he goes to the “sacred war” to Syria. The head of Al-Qaeda, the Egyptian Az-Zawakhiri, appeals to him-to dissolve ISIS (as the group was called then) and transfer the “exclusive” right to the Syrian jihad group “Ang Nusra”. But al-Baghdadi is a cunning charismatic. As a result, half of the Ang Nusra fighters crossed his command-together with the “commoncage” formed for “donations” of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. A few months later, the Al-Baghdadi detachments manage to tear out the championship from the rest of the jihadists in terms of the fighting spirit: IG challenged not only the West, but also to the “disobers” inside the Islam-Shiites.

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“Recruits aged 16 to 29 years of IS returns on Twitter in 75 languages. Of these, 18% - women, 6% - just running from poverty "

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“Inside the radical-Islamism there is a variety of tactics,” Lorenzo explains, apparently, an expert from the Institute for the Study of International Policy in Milan (IIMP), “al-Qaeda is devoted to the tactics of terrorism. IG - wants to become a state, operates as an army, occupies vast territories, appoints governors, judges, introduces Sharia, issues directives on the sale of tobacco and alcohol - and ordinary people are delighted. Similarly, the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, which announced the creation of the Woza Caliphate in the northeast of the country ... This is a new generation of jihadists. They earn up to $ 3 million a day in the "gray" export of oil and for this money are recruited by more and more new supporters. "

Today, IS has training bases in Libya: the militants occupied the airport in Tripoli and can now move freely through the air, and in the east of the country, IS has already formed its Islamist parliament. “The war in Afghanistan gave rise to al-Qaeda, new wars will bring even more problems,” says Bruce Ridel, a CIA analyst.

Islam with iPad

IG crucifies, cuts off his heads, rape, burns - and at the same time photographs everything, shoots on the video, uses the shot material as if we are talking about advertising food.

Speaker of IG Muhammad al-Anni is always in Jellabe, sandals, with a machine, an iPad with a “turned on” twitter, photo and video camera- all clashes with the participation of the IG are removed on the camera. “Al-Baghdadi militants were the first to take care of their own PR,” says Marco Lombardi from the ITSTIME research center. “They are not lovers, they are professionals in media space: look, for the video about the execution of journalist James Fouley (the video diverged on the world media on August 19. - The New Timuses) They prepared the background of the“ set ”, painting it in rich colors.”

Under the supervision of al-Anani-12 people, a whole department. They make installation and post-production, this is Allah in version 2.0, who speaks with the enemy his own tongue, using shots worthy of music clips, with installation at the level of computer games. From the chopped head of the police chief in Mosul (execution occurred during the 2014 World Cup), a hashtag is made on their twitter-#WorldCup-“our leather ball”.

“The IG has a special structure engaged only in the propaganda online,” says Marco Lombardi. - They publish 40 thousand tweets a day, and then suddenly close them to watch, as happened with the full video version of Fowley's execution. This suggests that they are well aware of the Streisand effect*. They know: censorship news only raises its rating.

The first video of the IG was released on July 6, 2014: on it, the caliph Ibrahim seems to be the Giyhadist's World Vanguard: Allah's governor on Earth came out of the media underground. After the death of Ben Laden, Jihad experienced the crisis of his representation and was on the verge of falling, so he, a new guru - believe him, faithful. In the turban and a black tunic, he sprays a threat not from the secret brothel, but from the mosque, at home for every believer; In the same place, in the mosque, al-Baghdadi announces the birth of a caliphate, to which every Muslim should obey. The Americans were detained in Camp Bucca until 2009 for terrorist activities; And now he is a political leader and head of the Ummah - the Muslim world. “Jihad is the responsibility of every Muslim, you need to make a hijra, the transition to the IG and submit to his undeniable power, the power of the descendant of Mohammed,” he says with Mingbar (Amvon).

Second generation

Muslims hear it around the world. The flow of recruits does not run out. Moreover, many of them were born and grew up in the West. This is the “second generation” of jihadists - they came to Libya, Iraq and Syria - the new centers of jihad - from multinational metropolis.

“European jihadists, wars' veterans in Syria and Iraq, children of crisis and alienation will be a real threat to the West: they will continue to perform terrorist attacks,” Anglo-Paki-Paki-Paki-Paki-Paki-Paki Rashid assures the British expert on radical Islam. The Canadian Michael Ignatieff holds a similar opinion: “European jihadists, thanks to the knowledge of high technology, serve as a kind of gluing material between different cells of this world and at the same time perform the most cruel actions. They proceed from the fact that in jihad, like mafia clans, a converting rite of initiation is required. ”

According to the French authorities, today under the leadership of al-Baghdadi-about 700 citizens of France. In London they talk about 450 militants with British passports. In the ranks of the IG, there are many Muslims born in Europe - they grew up there, but they feel unnecessary. Primary indoctrination occurs already in the mosque, where the imam suddenly refers to the unjust a Muslim of the world order. Further - the Internet. “Many IG recruits learned about the existence of al-Baghdadi from the network,” says Belgian journalist Pierre Pichinin da Prat, who recently returned from the occupied Iraqi Falluja. - In Belgium, for example, for many young Muslims, Caliphate has become the main meaning of existence. I am familiar with the mother of two sons, 16 and 22 years old, who one day flew to Turkey without warning my parents. Now they are already in Syria and regularly talk with their mother on Skype. “Everything is in order with us,” they say. “We fulfill our duty to God.”

“Recruits aged 16 to 29 years are recruited on Twitter in 75 languages,” says Ahmed Rashid. “Of these, 18 % - women, 6 % - just run away from poverty and have a vague idea of ​​Islam.” He continues: “IG, unlike other organizations, the same“ al-Qaeda ”, there are no strict canons when recruiting:“ If you want to fight, you are ours, you will find love, justice and Sharia with us-a message simple and accessible to everyone. ”

Over the past year, about 10 thousand “jihad warriors” from 83 countries replenished the ranks of the IG: 2500 from Saudi Arabia, 3000 from Tunisia, 270 from Germany, 400 from Turkey, dozens of Central Asia. And another 800 - from Russia, or rather - from Chechnya.

By the way, it is the Chechens who have their representation at the very top of IG. The 45-year-old chief field commander IG Red-haired Omar al-Shishani does not speak Arabic, but he says in Russian. Al-Shishani is the combat name of Tarkhan BatiRASHVILI, born in 1986, a native of Chechnya, who grew up in the Pankisi Gorge, and then moved to Georgia (Arabic shisani is a Chechen). In the middle of the zero years, he served in the Georgian army, fought with Russian troops in 2008, and then commissions, sick with tuberculosis. Omar is the youngest of the three sons born with a Christian father. All three brothers turned to Islam. The fate of Omar did not work out: he was persecuted by the need and illness. “He went to the radicals due to poverty,” the father says about his son. In early 2012, Omar leaves for Syria, where in the same year he became commander of Katib “Al Mukhadzhirin”-a battalion of foreign fighters of IG. After the death of the main field commander al-Billah al-Anbari Omar, the entire Army of Al-Baghdadi became the head of Jais.

It was he who led the IG detachments to Iraq, where the Sunnis met them with open arms and where on June 29, 2014, Al-Baghdadi proclaimed the creation of a new caliphate.

Anti -parade are militants. Syria, January 2014 /Photo: from the site www.raymondibrahim.com

Lupported success

IS military victories, many experts believe, are based on the fundamental mistakes of the United States and Iraqi authorities. The first is the debasification of the country (from the word “Baas” - the name of the ruling party in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. - The New Times), which was started in 2003 by the American administration. A million former party functionaries, as well as army and special services officers - the vast majority of the Sunnis, were deleted from society. All these years among them, the focus of dissatisfaction smiled, hundreds of thousands were ready to replenish the ranks of armed resistance to the new Shiite authorities. The advance of the IG was only an occasion. The Islamists skillfully played on the offended feelings of the former Saddam asset: "You are the Sunnis, and you are our brothers, and we have a common enemy - Shiites in Baghdad." Many in Iraq are convinced that the fall of Mosul and Falluja would not be so stunning without the direct assistance of the Islamists from the former Baasists. Moreover, moving from one city to another, the Islamists without fear left the already captured settlements to former Saddam army officers.

The second mistake, as the French magazine “Express” indicates, is hastily reduced in 2005 by the Iraq ethno-confessional card: Kurds-in the north-received even more autonomy and representative office in the legislative organs, while the Sunnis-in the center of the country-were selected their last residues: the formed vacuum instantly filled al-Caida.

The third mistake-the government of the al-Maliki actually turned away from the 100,000th Sunni police “Sach” (“Awakening”), created in 2006 by the Americans (to correct the errors of 2005) to combat al-Qaeda: after the departure of the Americans, Baghdad refused to financing “Sachi”, which was based on loyal Sunnic tribes. It was the commanders of SAHAHA who became the first target of gihaddists from IG.

“Al-Maliki turned the Sunni elite into second citizens. And the elite, previously dominated in the country, was longing for a revenge, - explains the French expert in the Arab world Roman Kaye. - Without aircraft and heavy weapons that they did not have, the IS units would never have captured large cities, they received substantial support within the country ”...

According to the end of August, the IS units, despite the American bombing, retain control over the five Iraqi provinces. On the other hand, al-Baghdadi succeeded in what no one succeeded before: he turned into allies the former sworn enemies. The units of the Iranian “Guardians of the Islamic Revolution” were secretly transferred to Iraqi Kurdistan, where they are now fighting against IS BOK ON BOK with the Kurdish militia, and the Pentagon, according to the American press, for the sake of defeating, is thinking about a tactical military alliance with Damascus. But the outcome of this fight is far from foreseen.

The existence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) became known in April 2013. The leader of the organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the leaders of the al-Qaeda department in Iraq, united several groups of radical Islamist-Sunnis under the banners of ISIS, who fought with the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian city of Rakka was the central base of ISIS.
The “official” goal of the IG is the reconstruction of the Arab Empire, founded by the prophet Mohammed, in the form in which it existed in the VIII - XIII centuries: from the Ferghana Valley to the Pyrenee Peninsula with the capital in Baghdad, controlled by the Caliphs, the “leaders of the perpetrators”, the descendants of the prophet (Mohammed did not have children of the male gender, therefore, the genus leads from it from it. The daughters of Fatima and her husband Ali).
In Syria, ISIS actually waged a struggle on three fronts: against the Assad government, against the moderate opposition (free army of Syria) and against another radical group of al-Nusra.