Lessons learned in Afghanistan: al-Qaeda's advice for Mujahideen in Iraq

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, Jan-March, 2004 by Ben N. Venzke, Aimee Ibrahim

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INTRODUCTION

The "In the Shadow of the Lances" series first appeared after 9-11. As of mid-April 2003, there have been nine installments. The majority of these were written by al-Qaeda spokesperson Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who also authored the series' most often quoted and notorious passage. In an article that became public in June 2002, Ghaith wrote, "We nave not reached parity with them [Americans]. We have the right to kill four million Americans--two million of them children--and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, it is our right to fight them with chemical and biological weapons, so as to afflict them with the fatal maladies that have afflicted the Muslims because of the [Americans'] chemical and biological weapons."

In March 2003, al-Qaeda released the fifth and sixth installments of the series. These two articles were written by Saif al-Adel. Al-Adel, who is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, is believed to be a high-ranking member involved in the group's military operations. He is a former Egyptian special forces officer who became involved with al-Qaeda through his affiliation with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was run by al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Al-Adel's background fits with the subject matter of these two recent pieces, which are studies regarding the lessons learned from US operations in Afghanistan and the tactics, techniques and procedures al-Qaeda utilized to counter them. The focus of this report is on the first and most significant of the two articles written by al-Adel. The article is entitled, "Message to Our People in Iraq and the Gulf [Region] Specifically and to our Islamic Ummah in General: The Islamic Resistance Against the American Invasion of Qandahar and Lessons Learned." As the title of the article states, the intended audience for this training material is the fighters operating in Iraq against the US and its coalition allies.

An analysis of the article is included in this report.

SIGNIFICANCE

The release of this article follows on the heels of the 11 February 2003 audio statement released by Osama bin Laden before the US invasion of Iraq. In that recording, Osama bin Laden laid out his position, stating that it was not the Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein that he sought to protect. Rather, he wanted to encourage Muslims to fight against an invading Western army in a Muslim land. Whether or not Hussein's regime lasted was, to a certain degree, irrelevant.

Saif al-Adel's intent in releasing this piece follows along with this theme of fighting against the Americans and their coalition partners, while not exerting any special effort to protect the Ba'ath Party. Al-Adel is also continuing a long-practiced al-Qaeda tradition of learning from both its past mistakes and successes, as well as those of others. In this article, al-Adel passes down a portion of the knowledge al-Qaeda has compiled on what worked and did not work in Afghanistan so that those fighting in Iraq against the US will meet with success. He writes, "This message, which was prepared in a hurry, aims at providing our people in the Arab region with a clear picture, from the [battle] field, of the reality of the American enemy and its fighting tactics, and we will use layman's language and refrain from using military terminology."

An examination of al-Adel's article provides useful insight into al-Qaeda's guerrilla warfare tactics, techniques, and procedures in Afghanistan, and what the group will be seeking to employ in Iraq and other future conflicts. It is in essence, one portion of al-Qaeda's guerrilla warfare playbook.

OBSERVATIONS

The invasion of Iraq by the US and its coalition partners fits perfectly with al-Qaeda's perception of US designs on the region, and provides al-Qaeda the opportunity to stress the critical importance of its continued struggle. Even a strong show of support by the Iraqi people for the US, as well as actions by the US to put power into the hands of a new Iraqi Government will not be enough to change al-Qaeda's desire to support terrorist and guerrilla actions in Iraq. For al-Qaeda, the coalition presence on the soil of an Arab and Muslim land is enough to justify the need to respond. As Osama bin Laden has already stated, the protection of the Saddam Hussein regime or any other ruling party for that matter are not the focus of their involvement.

Al-Qaeda and similarly-minded groups seek, as they do in Afghanistan, Chechnya and other guerrilla conflicts around the world, to remove the kufr, or infidels, from Muslim land and to establish an Islamic state under the rule of Shari'a. Consequently, it does not matter if the Saddam Hussein regime has already fallen. As long as there is a coalition presence in Iraq, al-Qaeda and other groups will seek to conduct terrorist and guerrilla operations there against coalition forces and any new government viewed as a puppet of the West. This type of activity was demonstrated in Afghanistan through numerous assassination attempts against President Hamid Karzai and other newly appointed senior government officials.