The leader of an Al Qaeda-linked Iraqi group has called on Muslims to form secret cells to help finance militants and provide aid for their families, mainly for Palestinians in their struggle with Israel.
“We propose that every money-earning Muslim should save $2 a month, of which half would be allotted to our folk in Palestine while the rest goes to other fronts,” Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, said in a recording posted on the Internet on Thursday. “Secret societies with limited sizes in every street should collect theses funds and preserve them or invest them until an opportunity emerges to deliver them to those who deserve them,” said the leader of the group believed by US and Iraqi officials to be a front for the main homegrown Al Qaeda network in Iraq.
Baghdadi said Israel was a “germ planted in the body of the (Muslim) nation and should be removed even if traitors sign thousands of peace treaties with it”.
The militant leader, whose group has claimed responsibility for kidnappings and attacks on US and government forces in Iraq, said the Islamic State was willing to offer Palestinian fighters training including on how to make bombs and rockets. He said Muslims in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt should fight alongside Palestinians and provide them with aid. “We admit shortcomings” in supporting Palestinian fighters, he said. Baghdadi said he saw Iraq as a “corner stone for the return of Jerusalem” to Muslim rule. |