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Terrorism in the Internet

The Cyber-Cemetery of the Mujahedeen

By Yassin Musharbash  

They were once medical students, fathers or businessmen who took their own lives -- as suicide bombers in Iraq. Their obituaries, which can be read on the Internet, are documents of men who were blinded by their deadly version of faith.

Ahmad Sa'id al-Ghamidi wanted to be a doctor. The 20-year-old had enrolled at the University of Khartoum in Sudan and his family had given him money for fees and living expenses, enough to last him until he had his degree. But in the end, that money didn't go for rent or for books on how to heal the sick. Al-Ghamidi used that money to kill. 

Incited by the propaganda of al-Qaida and Iraqi insurgents, the young man from Saudi Arabia threw his future away. He gave up his studies and, as one Internet site gushes, he "withdrew all his money … went to Iraq … and became the hero of a unique operation in Mosul." 

The "operation" was a suicide bombing. Al-Ghamidi blew himself up in the middle of a mess tent in this northern Iraqi city. He killed 22 people, including 18 Americans.

The story of this one-time medical student who became a terrorist is just one in a list of more than 200 obituaries of "martyrs" which have been posted on Islamist Internet sites. Number 114 on the list, for example, is the account of a Saudi businessman "who wanted to break away from worldly things." Number 144 had a pregnant wife when he martyred himself. Number 109 is the story of a karate teacher inspired by the speeches of Osama bin Laden. 

And that's just from one list of obituaries. There are more -- partly overlapping; partly supplementing each other; all providing unique insight into the business of jihad in Iraq. Through them, details emerge about communal life in "safe houses," about relations among the mujahedeen, about telephone calls to relatives back home and the planning of attacks. For many young men from outside Iraq, eager to become mujahedeen, the struggle in Iraq was so important that they refused to give up even after being repeatedly turned away at the border. Eventually, though, even they were able to sneak in. 

Goal: Hero Worship 

Many of those honored in these Internet graveyards were suicide bombers, who have killed well over 1,000 people over the last two years in Iraq, including soldiers from the US-led alliance as well as hundreds of civilians and recruits from the new Iraqi army and police. 

Others mentioned in the Web sites died in air attacks or in house-to-house combat in the rebel stronghold of Falluja. They fought and died in the name of different terrorist organizations, but most gave their lives for the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, led by the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.  

The list of people who gave their lives for jihad is made up almost exclusively of non-Iraqi Arabs. The entries vary in length; sometimes only the name, the cause and the date of death are mentioned. In other cases, friends and companions have put together obituaries that are pages long. 

Of course, not all the details are verifiable and the obituaries were put together with the goal of aggrandizing the terrorists' deeds and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps. Entries describing a bomber's body as smelling sweetly of musk or that the ground near him was covered with blood that was "pure" have to be seen in the light of such propaganda goals. Still, these records given an unfiltered account of the religious attitudes and personal experiences of the insurgents and provide the outside world a view of the mujahedeen's daily life. 

SPIEGEL ONLINE has put together four examples:

Abu Osama al-Maghribi (more...)  a Moroccan suicide bomber, who carried out an attack against the UN headquarters in Baghdad on Sept. 22, 2003. Just last week, al-Qaida in Iraq published his personal record a second time, under the terror group's logo to show that he was one of them. "I … told him that he had been chosen for this action," writes his biographer, Abu Ismail al-Muhagir. "He was very happy." Writing further, he said al-Maghribi's face shone like the moon during the night before the attack. 

Abu Hamza al-Hadrami (more...),  a student who supposedly attended a German university before he set out for Iraq, if one can believe his eulogist. "He was very engaged and brought Islamic students together and helped them connect with one another," reported a fellow student and fighter, who met him in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hadrami is unknown to the German authorities. 

Suhail al-Sahli (more...),  was a jihad veteran, who was active on several fronts in Asia and the Balkans before he went to Iraq. "As things began moving ahead in Iraq, he flew to Kurdistan," his obituary states. Al-Sahi's case shows that for experienced fighters, Iraq is as important as Afghanistan was in the 1980s. 

Faisal al-Mutairi (more...),  was, according to the Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, on the Kuwait police force before going to Iraq. He was quoted by his eulogist: “Don’t stand with bound hands, spur the Muslims on and teach them Jihad!” Al-Mutairi's case illustrates how al-Qaida's public relations work is organized. The Kuwaiti shot propaganda films for the terrorist network.

Most are Saudis

Many of the dead mentioned in the collections are also known through press reports. In other words, the obituaries are not merely a kind of misinformation campaign mounted by al-Qaida and related groups. In fact, creating a written record of the lives and deaths of fighters has a tradition that goes back to the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Abdallah Azzam, the spiritual leader of the mujahedeen resistance after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, kept a book in which he gathered the names and stories of those who died fighting. There are examples that go even further back, all the way to the early Muslim conquests during the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad.

The collections also provide a rough breakdown of what countries the insurgents come from. More than half hail from Saudi Arabia, followed by Syria (around 10 percent), Kuwait (approximately six percent) and Jordan (about three percent). Iraqis comprise some 6.5 percent of the insurgents written about in the lists. 

Those percentages closely line up with those that Israeli terrorism expert Reuven Paz established after researching 154 cases. According to him, he now has 430 names of fallen insurgents, but his percentages regarding national origin have stayed the same. He does point out, however, that the high numbers of Saudis listed could be due to the fact that those writing the obituaries seem to be Saudis themselves.

The fact that the Saudis made up the lion's share of the insurgents is not disputed by experts, despite a report by the US that of the 312 foreigners arrested in Iraq for taking part in the insurgency, 78 were from Egypt -- the most from any one country -- and only 32 came from Saudi Arabia. Saudi nationals, however, are thought to make up the bulk of suicide bombers in Iraq, perhaps accounting for their not having been arrested in large numbers. Paz estimates some 70 percent of the suicide bombers are Saudi. 

Helpful hints for the path to martyrdom

Islam expert Guido Steinberg, who just wrote a book on new terror networks, suspects that there are hardly more than 1,000 non-Iraqi, Arabic fighters in Iraq, although Paz's estimates are slightly higher. Most are able to sneak in though the Saudi and Syrian borders and this summer, a brochure appeared on the Internet that gave tips on how to best make it to the "battlefield." For example, it suggests a person disguised as a businessman or a patient, ideally wearing jeans and listening to western music on a Walkman, would likely not be suspected of being an Islamic radical by border guards. 

And even if they are responsible for the bulk of the most brutal attacks, foreign fighters are in the minority. On the other hand, it is estimated that there are several tens of thousands of Iraqis participating in the insurgency. 

Most of the mujahedeen volunteers are, if one can generalize from the data from the lists, between 18 and 28 years old. Many of them are fathers; several of the older ones have already fought in Afghanistan and spent time in prison in their home countries because of extremist activities. 

A few were highly skilled. One insurgent, gloated a companion, had excellent grades in school. Other accounts tell of sets of brothers among the fallen and some list the telephone numbers of those left behind, so that sympathizers could congratulate the families and express their condolences. 

The "Heroes' Stories," wrote al-Qaida in Iraq as it announced the continuation of the obituary series, has as its goal the "lifting of hearts" and the "incitement of young men." Mothers are told that they can be sure that they bore heroes whose memories will not fade. 

The twisted nature of this useless heroism becomes glaring in some of the cases. A Syrian, it is reported, traveled with his son to fight in the Iraqi jihad. Both died side by side in the bitter fight in the rebel stronghold of Falluja. 

The son, who is now honored as a martyr, was 13 years old at the time.