The Muslim Brotherhood's English-language website reports that Al Qaeda in Iraq's (AQI) leader is calling for war against the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq.
Citing a report by the Italian Adnkronos news agency, the Brotherhood states that AQI's leader, Abu Amr al-Baghdadi, has offered a reward to those who bring him the head of individuals within the party's leadership. He has reportedly given these acts legality if the IIP does not revert from its political orientation within 15 days. This appears to be a reference to the party's overall decision to participate in Iraqi politics. The IIP, along with other members of the Sunni Tawafiq bloc, boycotted the government between August of 2006 and July of 2007.
According to Reuters (Arabic), al-Baghdadi's threat was made in an audio statement posted on jihadist websites earlier this week, while the group's leadership was previously targeted in August in and IED attack, resulting in the death of an aide.
The IIP reasserted itself as a political player after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, and is considered to be the leading party within Iraq's Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front a.k.a Tawafiq. The current Iraqi Vice President, Tariq al-Hashemi, is the party's highest-ranking member of the IIP within the government.
An article published by the London-based al-Quds Press cited the party's spokesperson as stating that al-Baghdadi's statement is indicative of AQI's weakness in the way that it now apparently relies upon its audience to carry out its crimes.
Is Baghdadi's call indeed indicative of an AQI on the decline? Is it an indication that AQI has no real long-term political prospects in Iraq?
For more on the greater divide between the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, I recommend you read a post by Marc Lynch on the issue on his blog Abu Aardvark.
