Leader of terror cell reveals data on command structure

BAGHDAD — The leader of a militant cell mounting attacks on U.S. forces from its Baghdad neighborhood says groups like his operate with little supervision from Ba’athist leaders but receive occasional help from outsiders who may be al Qaeda operatives.

He also said his group, which came together in reaction to the American presence in the country, does not seek the return of Saddam Hussein. If the despised dictator were to return, “We will fight him, too.”

The cell leader agreed to a series of four interviews in mid- and late-November using the pseudonym Abu Mujahid. Unlike many who offer such interviews, he did not ask to be paid for it.

Each of the meetings was held after nightfall, in a public place, the location and timing of which was set at the last moment. He demanded there be no use of a satellite telephone — from which a location could be traced — or of cameras or recording devices.

Challenged to prove he was really the head of a resistance cell that mounts violent attacks on American troops, Abu Mujahid looked at his watch and said, “Wait 15 minutes.”

Sixteen minutes later, four mortar rounds fired from a southwestern Baghdad neighborhood flew overhead, landing in the compound of the U.S.-led Provisional Authority.

“God willing, we hit something this time,” said Abu Mujahid, smiling wryly. “Our mortars are very inaccurate. We cannot wait to aim them, so we use timers.”

He said he did not want to fight the Americans when they first arrived in April.

“I had always looked at the American government as respectable, until now,” he said. “They are educated. They know how to build things, how to think and how to work hard.

“They promised to liberate us from occupation. They promised us rights and liberty, and my colleagues and I waited to make our decision on whether to fight until we saw how they would act.”

But, he said, the crime and chaos in the early days after Saddam’s fall convinced him and his colleagues — all Ba’ath Party members — that the Americans had come “as occupiers and not as liberators.”

“And my colleagues and I then voted to fight. So we began to meet and plan. We met with others and have tried to buy weapons. None of us are afraid to die, but it is hard. We are just men, workers, not soldiers.”

Abu Mujahid said the guerrillas waging dozens of attacks on American forces each day have a loosely organized command structure that prevents any one man from knowing too many specifics about other operations.

While some coordination and support exist between cells, most are left to operate independently.

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