PRESS RELEASE FROM IRAQ:
Translation of the 1st press release given by Sheikh Abu Iyad the Amir of the Mujahideen in Baghdad.

The Reality on the Ground!

My brothers Assalamualaikum warahmutallahi wabara katuhu, salutation from Allah I send to all of you.

My brothers I am sorry for the delay in sending this message to you; in the time when you want to know what's going on because we were extremely busy in a matter Allah (swt) knows how much importance is attached to it. And I realise I have been late in communicating to you and I want to share this great information, great news from Iraq-ul-Islam. Indeed it is a great piece of news, I need to ask you to listen to the message, read it and contemplate about it because it is going to be the last message from me that I am able to relay to you from Aman. After that I will never be able to send it to you in this way. What has happened is that all the brothers in Baghdad have been here for the last 30 days. But last week when Sahaaf the Iraqi information minister last spoke and just after that the two US tanks entered on that day we sent our delegation the letter to Aman. From there the message was passed and the reason why it was sent via this route is because we had previously arranged to receive people and additional support there. This is the reason why the communication link is going to be one-way i.e. from me to the Ummah.

First of all I must carry the salutation of 8000 thousand Mujahideen in Iraq. (n.b. not the Iraqi army but Mujahideen who have come voluntarily from Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Albania, Bosnia etc) I carry the salutation of the brave who are eager to meet the enemy to die for the sake of Allah (swt). Salutation of the soldiers of Allah and the horses of Islam and salutation from the friends of Allah his Angels and Gibrael (as) and his wings. I carry for you the salutation of the riders of the daytime and the worshippers in the night-time.

In order for me to carry the great news (Busharah); this Busharah is for those people whose eyes are full of tears, the tears are shed because they see the people of the cross in the Muslim land in Dar-ul-Salaam, in Baghdad, in the cradle of the Abbassi Khilafah. I send this good news to all those people who have been misled by the magicians and the majic of the pharaoh of this time. The magic of pharaoh at the time of Musa (as) did not deceive the eye of the believer, like Musa (as). Those tricks of the magicians of today, the jews and the media, they deceived many Muslims of the world and defeated them even before the battle has started. By the almighty Allah, the great lord of the throne, the situation in Iraq is not the way the jews tried to show or demonstrate by their own majic. We are going to tell you the truth from the reality not from hopeful thinking, not wishes, not dreams nor is it a matter of propaganda.

I will start off by explaining why the Iraqi forces retreated from Baghdad and from all other cities. This is not an issue of defending the soldiers of the Baath Party, as you are all well aware what our stance is regarding the Baath kufr regime, rather a matter to purify the truth (Haq) of the situation. All that happened in this withdrawal was in accordance with our consultation between the leadership of the Mujahideen and the leadership of the Iraqi forces. This after the bombing in Baghdad by the enemy of Allah had intensified to the level that they themselves started to send bombs each one weighing 10 000 tonnes. A new type of bomb was released one that compares to small nuclear type bombs over Baghdad. They (US) used it because it was a new type of bomb that had not been banned internationally and they dare not use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) because they themselves would not be able to defend themselves against such weapons. After all this we realise they are going to persist in bombing, killing and destroying without desiring to come and fight face to face. After all this we realise the enemy of Allah in the Pentagon is sitting and they do not know what to do. Especially when they faced resistance in Umm Qasr, which is only a small place (consists of 2 roads), and it took them 14 days to take control of 2 small roads. This is not to mention the cities of Iraq and the big cities of Baghdad. So they (kuffaar) realised that they need to use very powerful bombs as a tactic that will weaken the people of Iraq in order to destroy as much as they can from the infrastructure of Iraq, to inflict maximum damage on the Iraqi army and Iraqi people thus leading to an uprising. The shia who have been trained by the US will fight against the Iraqi regular army and the kurds from the North and there will be fighting on the streets between the regular army, Iraqi army and the Iraqi people whilst the Americans continue the bombing everywhere. After all this we decided to adopt the tactics as in Afghanistan.

We cannot fight as a regular army with a cowardly enemy who doesn't want to engage in land warfare. They have superiority over us by their airpower therefore the only way we can fight their regular army with their air superiority is to lure and engage them in street to street fighting or a guerrilla war. But there is no Tora Bora (mountains in Afghanistan) and there are no mountains in Iraq like the mountains in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen (Taliban) in Afghanistan retreated from all the cities one after the other and gave them all up so the bombing could stop (to save the innocent Muslim civilians) but the cowards never stopped the bombing and never came down to meet us. And yet up until now the Muslims have inflicted maximum damage on them and they can't even claim victory in Afghanistan.

We decided to use the same technique and the Iraqi leadership thank Allah accepted our Shura and that showed us a sign of responsibility from them that they realised that they could not fight the US as a regular army. Especially when you are living among your own people because the kuffaar will destroy you and destroy your own people so retreat but this will mean you have lost the war politically. This is the sole reason why we retreated especially after we found that there are enough places to be protected in, ones that are much better than Tora Bora. These are the bunkers and tunnels of Iraq, they were constructed by the Iraqi forces in 1989 and Alhumdulillah it is good news. The location of these places is guarded, nobody knows where they are except a few people in the Iraqi leadership. I can tell you the good news that all the Mujahideen are going to stay in the streets. All the Iraqi regular army will go to the bunkers 150 000 fighters who are extremely loyal to the regime and with them there is 150 Iraqi air jets MiG 27 (n.b. none of the media has covered the whereabouts of these fighter jets) and 2500 Iraqi tanks.

The agreement was that all the forces of Iraq, artillery, army, intelligence, informers, Republican Guard, Fidaaee Saddam and all other troops will retreat from their places, leaving behind them all those weapons that Iraq manufacturers, and come to the bunkers leaving the cities for the kuffaar to enter. They informed Al Jazeera (Qatari based news agency) to declare that the whole city of Baghdad is empty.

Alhumdulillah we kept with us the young Mujahideen those who used to be called Fidaaee Saddam (n.b. Fidaaee means someone who is trained to sacrifice his life for his cause). With the help of the brothers and the Ulemah with us they converted them to become Fidaaee Islam; they have denounced the Baath Party regime, they have denounced their views on Arab nationalism and declared the Shahadah accepting the Tawheed (Islamic monotheism) and declared to die for the sake of Allah and all this especially when they have been trained to be martyrs.

We will handle the enemy forces and the regular forces are not used to this type of warfare, they are used to a different type of fighting. These tunnels are in 3 different areas, I cannot mention their location for security reasons.

You may doubt about all that has taken place - where is the Police?, where is the Republican Guard?, where is the peoples army? that consists of 1 million strong. He has left the peoples army outside because they are just militia, the Mujahideen are outside and all they have taken with them is his Republican Guard and have left some of the Fidaaee Saddam outside to deal with any small uprising in the region.

We were aware that there was going to be an uprising from the kurds, the shia and even the people and that was what America was gambling on we decided not to give them this opportunity and this resulted in the war between us and them.

Oh Muslims the fighters in Iraq they have retreated and fortified themselves underground militarily and no enemy of Allah will dare to come there except to be destroyed.

Oh Muslims when the order to vacate all the cities came to the Iraqi forces, they were deserted when the American entered and they found no resistance. They claimed victory and invited all the cameras of the world to show what was happening to demoralise the army but they forget that there was no army there to be demoralised.
However this (propaganda) would have affected some of the people in Iraq so we decided to cut the power supply (electricity) completely, no communication and there will be no television that can be seen by the Iraqis. They demonstrated victoriously and they came out with all the media whom foolishly, from the arab media and Muslim media, started to repeat what the kuffaar had shown which was only one side of the story. You saw how they demonstrated their hatred and started to motivate the people to loot, to cause anarchy and to uprise. Thank Allah there was no Iraqi forces, no Iraqi soldiers, no Iraqi police in the street otherwise there would have been fighting and blood up to the knees.

Oh Muslim Ummah Iraq is strong, strong by the Mujahideen whom are collecting from the land of Iraq artillery, all the weapons they want, they have the enemy they wish to meet and inshallah will continue to fight until either they are victorious or attain martyrdom.

Allah (swt) says: Man has been created and is (in a state of) hurry
Muhammad (saw) said: Man is always impatient

What you see in Iraq is a military tactic, nothing more than that and what the media shows is not the truth. Rather you saw the looting, killing and the uprising start due to the absence of the Iraqi forces, Iraqi police and the Mujahideen. All of this was manufactured, ordered and incited by the approval of the American forces, to prove or show that there is no system left (i.e. it has been abolished).

Oh Brothers whosoever wants to come to us there is no way because our trip is to be the last trip and if you do so you will be putting your life at risk. There is no need for you to think about coming now, be patient wherever you are and prepare yourselves wherever you are. Until the appropriate time you will join the Mujahideen inshallah, with full details of how to reach us and how to enter and after that we will give the notice to the Mujahideen wherever they are.

In the end we say to you the crusaders did not achieve any objective, did not achieve what they came for, they came for the oil and the oil by Allah is under our eyes, we can see them and we are close to them. And whenever they start it by Allah we will burn it over their heads and whatever money they spend to build it we will destroy it.
The crusaders understand there is a trap and there is no way for them to go out. We are always able to capture from them, able to kill from them soldiers. By Allah we can see them but they cannot see us and we are around them but they are not able to recognise us. By Allah we can kill them one after one and we have started to do this just make the Dua and do not worry about the weapons; Allah (swt) is with us and we have plenty of weapons but the victory always comes with Tawakkul and Iman.

Oh Brothers beware victory doesn't come until after hardship. In the Battle of the Trench (Ahzaab) remember the example of the Trench the Muslims worked hard to build the trench and the trench was 9km long. They built it in extremely cold weather conditions in a few days and that hardship brought victory in the end.

Remember Salahudeen never got victory until after he fought them and got defeated and he fought them again and then he defeated them (enemy); remember always that the fight must depend on Allah and your own efforts. Don't wait for Sufyani (An evil person who slaughters women & children but sees Islam being attacked and defends the Muslims and Islam Allah (swt) gives him victory but he refuses to repent) and all other Hadiths talking about Sufyani. Whether Saddam Hussein is Sufyani is irrelevant and insignificant in fact we Ahluh Sunnah wal Jammah Muhaditheen consider these Hadith to be Daeef.

Therefore make Dua for us, by Allah the Mujahideen meet the enemy every day, our operations with your Duas keep coming to us. With the Maddad of Allah we are able to hunt them and fight them the way the fox hunts and fights against the chicken.

We call upon all the Muslims, in particular the ones in the Arabian Peninsula to be ready, the confrontation (Ma'ma') is going to start in the Arabian Peninsula. By Allah we have discovered very rich land and very cultivated land full of weapons, good for training and an enemy we can see. So be prepared and be firm the Jihad will be on your doorstep and remember those days they are coming, they are going to be long days, they are going to be very difficult days it needs your Dua.

Let me tell you about some of the nights we could see them and they couldn't see us.
One of those nights one of the brothers known as Abu Ahmad Afghani he was sitting and crying so they asked him why are you crying he said we used to pray to Allah (swt) that at the time of the Jihad against the Soviet Union and Russia they used to surround us from all directions but we could see them and we were waiting for the right time to start to kill them. I pray to Allah he gives me the same opportunity again. Where I am sitting in a place I can see them all moving around me and I am just waiting for the right time to kill from them. I wish I can have the same situation inshallah and Allah grant me to be in the land of Palestine where I will be in the same situation and have the same opportunity to fight there. After that he went out from his checkpoint and he started to reconnaissance and he came back and he said there are about 40 US patrol guards. The brothers said what do you think he said lets take them. So we all gathered together, all of us were happy and made Takbir amongst ourselves as if we were going to have a feast. By Allah we went out in an organised way and when the enemy came we was killing them the way you kill chicken and slaughtered them one after one. Each one of us came back with weapons we had taken off the enemy Alhumdulillah we killed 12, captured 8. Also amongst them were Sabees as well because we couldn't distinguish between man and woman from them; Wallahee what a Sabee they are.

Jihad operations there are very good and you heard about the martyrdom operation in the square of Baghdad. (n.b. its been reported that this operation was carried out on the 2nd day after the so called liberation of Iraq it caused at least 14 US soldiers to die and another 48 were injured).

The next day we went there and there was a very strong wind Allah (swt) sent upon them (the enemy) a strong wind because of this they were running away leaving their artillery and we were able to capture 2 soldiers and take their own artillery the story continues and is too long (to mention here).

Inshallah Victory will be soon for the Muslims

Source: Abu Iyad Amir of Mujahideen in Baghdad