News

[This article was published in the 14th issue of Nida'ul Islam magazine (http://www.islam.org.au), July-September 1996]

Global Muslim News (Issue 14)

Afghanistan

The Rabbani-led government in Kabul and Hizbul-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar finally reached an agreement to end the war between the two parties and to form a new coalition government.

The agreement was a result of months of negotiations and meetings between the two parties, with the internal and external intermediary of well known Islamic figures, especially Qadi Hussein Ahmed the Amir of the Islamic Group in Pakistan. Sheikh Abdu Rabir-rasul Sayyaf later declared his backing to the agreement.

Observers believe that this new agreement will cause decisive changes on the military and political fronts in the country, hopefully resulting in forming an Islamic state. It is also believed that most of the numerous Jihad groups in Afghanistan will join the new formed government; however, the Taliban movement seems to totally oppose the new government, calling for the resignation of president Rabbani.

The new government of Prime Minister Hekmatyar started a series of meetings with the different parties in preparation for the upcoming elections.

Libya

It has been over a year since the first gun battle between Mujahideen and the forces of the Apostate regime of Qaddafi took place, in which well-known Sheikh Abu Yahya, along with a number of his followers were martyred after slaying a number of the soldiers of evil. This was followed by announcing the establishment of the Fighting Islamic Group (FIG) which claimed responsibility for the various attacks on regime positions and personnel.

The FIG's strategy in the past year concentrated on preparation and weapon collecting, through attacking regime weapon storage basis and jails, along with a number of assassination operations that targeted high levelled regime officers, including Qaddafi himself.

Alongside with the military operations, the FIG concentrated on spreading its concepts and beliefs, detailing its path which is based on the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet (s.a.w.) according to the understanding of the righteous predecessors, presenting the armed struggle as the only legitimate and logical method to overthrow the Kafir regime of Qaddafi and to establish the alternative Islamic rule. The FIG also called upon the Muslim people of Libya to fulfill their duty towards their religion by supporting the Mujahideen and joining their rows.

Turkey

Nejmedin Erbakan, the leader of the "Rafah" (Islamic) party, met an agreement with the leader of the "Straight Path" (secular Mason) party, to establish the new cabinet. Erbakan, the new Prime Minister, however, made a bitter sacrifice giving up the most important ministries to the secular party, including the interior, foreign, defense, education, health, labor and industry ministries.

Following the parliament's confidence vote in the new coalition, Islamic observers are questioning Erbakan's vow to "uphold the nation's commitments to secularism" and his comments regarding the new coalition which he said is based on "mutual understanding of Turkey's democratic secular system and the principles of the republic's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk" the apostate who destroyed the Ottoman Khilafah, may Allah burn him in Hell fire.

Observers also question the future of this coalition, fearing that Al-Rafah's allie's history of corruption might demolish the newly established coalition, resulting in the decrease of Al-Rafah's popularity amongst the Muslim people of Turkey.

Kashmir

The Indian government failed miserably in its efforts to force the elections in the occupied Jamu and Kashmir province. Kashmiri Muslims fully responded to the Islamic Group's call to boycott the Indian-run elections.

Meanwhile, Mujahideen increased their military attacks against Hindu forces, which was boosted in numbers prior to the elections, in an attempt to force the Kashmiri people to participate in the voting process. The latest operations included:

- Killing 10 Hindu soldiers in Hadratbal.

- Attacking a patrol unit and killing 4 soldiers, in addition to the burning down of a Sirnjar council's building which was used by Hindu forces.

- 6 Hindu soldiers were killed and their weapons were taken in an attack by Mujahideen in Admbora. Two Mujahideen were also martyred.

- 8 more Indian soldiers were killed in the south of the province, and one army vehicle was destroyed in a land mind explosion. Tens of Hindu soldiers were taken prisoners in a number of operations.

- Mujahideen bombed an Indian military camp using missiles, resulting in severe losses, which is yet to be detailed.

Chechnya

Just as it was expected, the Russian criminal forces broke the agreement they signed with the Chechen Mujahideen. This happened when they launched a number of attacks targeting Chechen villages and cities in the south and the west of Chechnya, killing over 270 civilians and injuring hundreds others. Witnesses reported the use of the destructive Grad and Uragan missiles in the attacks.

Following these criminal offensives, the Mujahideen renewed their attacks on Russian military targets and positions. The results of these attacks are not known yet, however, it was confirmed that the deputy commander of the Russion MVD troops in North Caucasus, Maj. General Nikolai Skripnik was killed.

Algeria

A number of Islamic groups and figures representing various Jihad movements, issued statements concerning the current leadership of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria.

The four communiqués, two of which were issued by the FIG of Libya and the Jihad Group in Egypt, declared their halt of support to the leadership of the GIA, due to the deviations and legal mistakes committed by its Amir.

They also confirmed their support to Jihad against the apostate regime of Algeria, condemning any other innovated or deviated solution.

Jihad in Algeria, which started almost 5 years ago, faced a major set-back following the massacre of a number of leading scholarly and Jihadi figures by the current Amir of the GIA, who is believed to be surrounded by regime spies and collaborators.

Tajikistan

Tajik Mujahideen achieved a number of victories recently, including the liberation of large areas in the central region and fully controlling the strategic city of "Taweel Dara" which links the capital "Doshanbeh" with the eastern region of the country. Fierce battles were reported near the city when Mujahideen blocked the communist regime's attempts to regain control over the city.

Fighting was renewed a few months ago after the negotiations between the Russian-backed regime and the "Nahdah" Islamic party failed to reach an agreement.

Burma / Arakan

Mujahideen of the Rohanjia union of Arakan attacked Buddhist military positions in the Muslim village of Yetrla, killing over 40 soldiers and injuring others.

The attack was in retaliation to the Burmese invasion of the village situated 300 miles to the North of Monvdo city in the Arakan state of Burma.

The Burmese invaders, led by captain Onj Kiaw, transformed the village's mosque and school and some houses to a military camp. Many of the Muslim villagers were beaten up and expelled from their homes. Some Muslim women were reported to have been raped.

China

The communist Chinese authorities have arrested over 18,000 Yugur Muslims in the Muslim populated province of Xinjiang in the past three months. Most of the arrests occurred in the village of Aqsu and the town of Urumqi.

This latest crackdown began after the communist government signed an agreement with the communist governments of the central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Russia took part in this agreement.

Ogadin

Mujahideen of the Islamic Union of Ogadin carried out an assassination attempt targeting the anti-Islam criminal, Abdul Majeed Hassan, the person in charge of the Ogadin Jihad case, and the transport minister in the Ethiopian government.

The attack happened in the morning of July the 8th when two people opened fire on him near his office in the capital "Addis Ababa". He was then rushed to the hospital suffering serious injuries. Two of his bodyguards were killed in the operation.

In other news, the Ethiopian crusade forces occupied the Somali city of "Ael Brdy", situated in the west of the country. The invasion happened on the 28/6/96.

It is worth noting that the Ethiopian president has been representing Somalia in the UN council since the fall of the Somali government in 1990.

Muslim observers fear that the latest Ethiopian move is part of an international crusade plan to occupy all of Muslim Somalia, which is suffering form senseless tribal and ethnic fighting amongst its own Muslim people.