A supposed Iraqi insurgent was a big sham, the military says:
Over the past year, Iraqis heard several audio recordings by a mysterious terrorist leader named Omar al-Baghdadi singing the praises of al-Qaida and urging his followers to attack U.S. troops.
The whole thing was a sham, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Al-Baghdadi actually was a fictional character dreamed up by al-Qaida in Iraq to bolster its local credibility because the group largely is run by non-Iraqis. The voice heard in the recordings belonged to an Iraqi actor.
The character was “a creation of al-Qaida in Iraq leadership to help put an Iraqi face on … their efforts here,” Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said.
The revelation occurred after the capture in Mosul on July 4 of the top al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. He confessed that al-Baghdadi was a “myth” concocted by the group’s Egyptian-born leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Al-Mashhadani also told interrogators that Osama bin Laden’s inner circle still wields considerable influence over al-Qaida in Iraq.
Al-Qaida in Iraq created a terrorist umbrella group called the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006 and invented al-Baghdadi to lead it in an effort to “market itself” to Iraqis, Bergner said.
The invented character’s last name means “of Baghdad,” while the name Omar strongly suggests Sunni origin.
