Battle for new Baath leader likely

homeofthebrave · Post by **homeofthebrave** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:34 am

Battle for new leader likely

Michael Howard
Monday January 1, 2007
The Guardian

The execution of Saddam Hussein could force the Ba'ath party to choose a new leader, sparking an internal battle that could weaken its activities just as it was beginning to re-emerge as a serious force in the Sunni insurgency, a senior Iraqi intelligence official predicted yesterday.
"With Saddam gone and the two leading figures fighting over control of Ba'ath party funds, they may tear themselves apart," the official said in Baghdad.

Other Iraqi and western analysts warned that the death of its leader would push the organisation further into the hands of Syria - where key figures in the Iraqi Ba'athist leadership are thought to be hiding - increasing the leverage the Damascus government is able to wield over Iraq's internal affairs.

In what appeared to be the opening shots of a leadership contest, a statement signed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Baghdad Citizens Gathering and handed out at the party's offices in Amman and Damascus yesterday, pledged loyalty to Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a long-time Saddam confidant who escaped capture after the US-led invasion and is believed to be in Syria.

But the Iraqi intelligence official said it was likely al-Douri would face a challenge from younger Ba'athist figures such as Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, a former Ba'ath party member accused of funding and leading insurgency operations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980915,00.html

homeofthebrave · Post by **homeofthebrave** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:10 pm

stormseal has posted an update:

<a href="http://www.terroristmedia.com/nukem/mod ... 83ac5e6a3a"> The Story </a>

They chose Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri as new leader...

Evokee1 · Post by **Evokee1** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:56 pm

I think the baath loyalists and sympatisers has always been the back bone of the insurgency. And it seems like the baath has come more an more ligitimete in the eyes of the sunnis the last year or so. Before this year u almost never heard people in then insurgency openly praising the baath party. And wot about that awda (something?) party that mereged this year? It meant "return" party ands seemed to be a cover for the baat party. And now that the baath officially appoint a new leader its seems like they may be out of the hiding they´ve been in since 2003.