The ISI attacks, which occurred in the spring of 2012, killed 27 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, and wounded another three. Only two Al-Qaeda fighters fell in the attack. These tactics, called green-on-blue in Afghanistan, have been used to devastating effect by the Taliban. Thirty-five green-on-blue attacks were recorded in just the first three quarters of of 2012.

Mogadishu (Sunatimes) A few weeks ago, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) released the fourth installment of Salil al-Sawarim, a series of ultra-violent militant documentaries that have garnered millions of downloads on the web. The ISI was created by former Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to cement the unity of the various Sunni Muslim factions previously under the banner of the Mujahideen Shura Council in 2006. The flagship Al-Qaeda in Iraq documentary series is so popular that US intelligence operatives have worked to get the series off the web when the third installation hit the web.

In just the first two weeks, Salil al-Sawarim 2 garnered 170,000 downloads just within the United States and other Western countries. The activities of the ISI, not different at all from the Taliban in Afghanistan, are focused more heavily on dynamic asymmetrical warfare as opposed to traditional guerrilla tactics like field ambushes and other direct engagements against conventional forces like NATO.

In Salil al-Sawarim 2, which you can view on Liveleak (NSFW), Al-Qaeda fighters disguised in Iraqi SWAT uniforms sneak into the Sunni Muslim town of Haditha in the middle of the night to carry out executions against officers they accuse of detaining and torturing Sunni civilians. The fighters enter the SWAT facilities with fake arrest warrants against local captains, and when the fighters are taken to the sleeping quarters of the officers, they proceed to execute dozens of soldiers with silenced pistols. They end the night by killing the captains of the SWAT unit and leaving town after a brief firefight with regime officers.

The ISI attacks, which occurred in the spring of 2012, killed 27 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, and wounded another three. Only two Al-Qaeda fighters fell in the attack. These tactics, called green-on-blue in Afghanistan, have been used to devastating effect by the Taliban. Thirty-five green-on-blue attacks were recorded in just the first three quarters of of 2012.

These green-on-blue tactics and the attacks of the ISI on Iraqi regime forces, are now taking a front seat in the strategies of Al-Shabaab in Somalia. The attack on April 14 on the courthouse in Mogadishu was inspired by the ISI’s astounding display of guile and efficiency in their Iraq operations. Al-Shabaab attacked Mogadishu that Sunday with nine highly trained operatives disguised in special forces uniforms. The carefully planned attacks killed up to thirty Somali policemen and military personnel, including over a dozen members of the CIA-trained Alpha Group. The assault managed to unfurl the entire security plan of Mogadishu, exposing government ineptitude by effect. The April 14 attack drew minimal civilian casualties and pierced the heart of the state’s institutional power to the extent that the head of the supreme court is rumored to have hidden in a drawer to stay alive.

Just two days ago, the deputy chief prosecutor of Somalia was assassinated in the capital city Mogadishu. Ahmed Sheikh Nur Maalim is the highest-ranking government official to be assassinated since the Somali transition ended last September. It shows the renewed efforts of Al-Shabaab, and the change of tactics toward a more dynamic and efficient insurgency in the manner of the new Taliban and ISI tactics.

{DN Staff Writers}

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