Rafid Fadhil Ali
Rafid Fadhil Ali is journalist, writer and reporter. From 2003 to 2007 he covered the Iraq war and followed events from the field. Rafid worked for different pan-Arab and foreign media organizations. He is an expert in Iraqi politics and militant groups in the Middle East. Rafid writes frequently in English and Arabic for publications such as the Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor and Militant Leaders Monitor, and the daily Arab newspaper, al-Hayat.
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Articles by Rafid Fadhil Ali
Abu Baker al-Husseini Brings Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi Affiliate Back to Center Stage
The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI—Dawlat al-Iraq al-Islamiyyah), an umbrella organization for terrorist groups in Iraq including al-Qaeda in Iraq, suffered a blow when it lost its two top leaders...
Hezbollah Risks Regional Credibility by Its Support for the Syrian Regime
In Syria, like no other country in the Middle East, the mass protest movement widely known as “the Arab Spring” could change the entire regional order if it resulted in...
Hot Issue — Crackdown in Iraq: Former Ba’athists Still Pose Lingering Security Challenge
Executive Summary Hundreds of people have been arrested all around Iraq in an operation launched by the security forces against members of the banned Ba’ath party. The crackdown came a...
Broadcasting Qaddafi: A View of Iraq’s Mishan al-Juburi
After the fall of Tripoli to fighters loyal to Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), the Syrian-based al-Rai TV station became the prime source of speeches of the toppled regime’s messages....
A Ba’athist Veteran in Exile: A Profile of Salah al-Mokhtar
Introduction After the Anglo-American invasion that toppled the regime of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party, thousands of junior and senior members of the...
Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah Seek Greater Popularity through Threats to Kuwaiti Port Development
Last April the Kuwaiti government started building a new port on Boubyan Island near the marine border with Iraq. The port, named Mubarak al-Kabir (Grand Mubarak) after the founder of...
Between Iran and a Hard Place: A Profile of Bahrain’s Sheikh Issa Qassim
The chasm between the Sunni ruling elite and the Shi’a majority has been always the driving factor shaping the modern political history of Bahrain. Although Shi’a Muslims form the majority of...
Three Men from Basrah: A Look at Key Shia Militants Guiding the Path of Iraq’s Violent Politics
For years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the city of Basrah saw the growing influence of various Shia militias. In addition to the better known and powerful Mahdi...
A Portrait of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri: The Last Ba’athist
Over the months that followed the invasion of Iraq in 2003, most of the prominent figures of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime and his family members were killed, captured or fled...
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s Growing War with North Yemen’s Houthist Movement
Relations between the Zaydi Shi’a Houthi rebels in Yemen and al-Qaeda have never been friendly, despite government claims to the contrary. The two movements have not yet had direct confrontation,...
Straddling the New Ba’athist Divide: Iraq’s Ghazwan al-Kubeisi
The execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006, led to the cleaving of his Ba’ath party over the question of succession. At that time, the party which had ruled...
Split in the Islamic Army of Iraq over Post-Occupation Strategy
Only a few days after the U.S. army ended its combat mission in Iraq came the declaration of a split within one of the most prominent insurgent groups, al-Jaysh al-Islami...
A Portrait of Shaykh Akram al-Kabi: Leader of Iraq’s League of the Righteous and Challenger to the Sadrist Line
The term “special groups” has been used by coalition forces in Iraq since 2006 in reference to splinter groups of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army – JaM). These...
Insurgent Groups React to the Withdrawal of American Combat Forces in Iraq
The withdrawal of the last combat units of the U.S. army from Iraq at the end of August attracted reactions from various Iraqi insurgent groups. On September 1 the number...
Muqtada al-Sadr Calls for a New Role for the Jaysh al-Mahdi Militia in Iraq
Recent calls by the radical Iraqi Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to his Jaysh al-Mahdi (JaM) militia to become involved in protecting local Shi’a mosques have ignited fear of a new...
The Succession Question: The Islamic State of Iraq Searches for New Leaders
The killing of the two top leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI - al-Qaeda’s umbrella group in Iraq), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri (a.k.a Abu Hamza...
AQAP’s Man in the South: Nasir al-Wuhayshi
Nasir al-Wuhayshi (a.k.a Abu Basir) appeared in a video in January 2009 to announce the merger between al-Qaeda branches in Saudi Arabia and Yemen under his command. The new organization...
The People of Righteousness: Iraq’s Shi’a Insurgents Issue Demands for Hostages
The second man in the Iraqi Shi’a insurgent group Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (The People of Righteousness – AAH), Shaykh Akram al-Ka’abi recently gave his first interview to the mainstream pan-Arab...
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Radical Rival: A Portrait of Qais al-Khaz’ali
For most observers, the link between the release of British hostage Peter Moore, held in Iraq for two and a half years and the nearly simultaneous release of Iraqi militia...
New Hezbollah Manifesto Emphasizes Political Role in a United Lebanon
On a giant screen in his stronghold in Southern Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced his party’s new manifesto on November 30 (Lebanonfiles.com, November 30). Since the war between Israel...
The Jihadis and the Cause of South Yemen: A Profile of Tariq al-Fadhli
Earlier this year Tariq al-Fadhli, the prominent jihadist leader from South Yemen, broke his 15 year alliance with the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al-Fadhli, who was a...
Diplomacy Fails to Defuse Iraqi Anger over Alleged Syrian Role in Baghdad’s “Bloody Wednesday”
Only 24 hours passed between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s warm welcome to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the presidential palace in Damascus and the attacks on the government buildings...
The Islamic Shi’a Resistance in Iraq and Iran’s Confrontation with the U.K.
More than two years after their abduction, two of the five British hostages held in Iraq have been confirmed dead. On June 19, the remains of Jason Creswell and Jason...
Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi Resistance Seek to Win Over Fighters of the Awakening Councils
After a gradual handover process, the Sunni fighters of the Sahwa (Awakening) Councils have come under the responsibility of Iraq’s Shi’a-led central government. From their emergence two years ago until...
Insurgent Attacks on the Iraqi Energy Sector
With the recent reduction in political violence, the Iraqi government is looking to make greater use of the nation’s formidable oil wealth, a frequent target of Iraq’s varied insurgent groups....
Reviving the Iraqi Ba’ath: A Profile of General Muhammad Yunis al-Ahmad
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq not only toppled Saddam Hussein, but it also put an end to three and a half decades of political domination by the Ba’ath party over...
Al-Awda Party and the Ba’athist Dream of Return in Iraq
Iraq’s al-Awda party first emerged in the weeks following the demise of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime in 2003. Al-Awda means “the return” in Arabic, in this case the “return” of...
Kurdish Islamist Groups in Northern Iraq
A spokesman of the Kurdish arm of al-Qaeda in Iraq recently announced the group’s intention to eliminate Iraq’s Kurdish leadership: “To the two Kurdish puppets, Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani,...
Terrorism Comes to Damascus: Syria Faces its Own Islamist Threat
After a generation of internal stability Syria was struck by a terrorist attack in its capital of Damascus on September 27. According to an official Syrian source, 17 people were...
Hamas Arrests Pro-al-Qaeda Leader of Jaysh al-Umma in Gaza
In a deserted area of southern Gaza, the recently formed Jaysh al-Ummah (The Army of the Nation - JAU) organized its first public training session on September 1. The local...
The Mahdi Army: New Tactics for a New Stage
Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has issued a statement describing a new strategy for attacking Coalition forces (alkufanews.com, June 13). The statement follows a year of intense military pressure...
Iraqi Government Launches Operation to Expel al-Qaeda from Mosul
After four days of a preparatory operation code-named Za’eer al-Asad (The Lion’s Roar), Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to supervise a new...
Confronting the Sadrists: The Issue of State and Militia in Iraq
On April 26, Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr stood down from his threat to wage an all-out war against the Iraqi government and the coalition. A week before, the anti-American...
Al-Qaeda’s Palestinian Inroads
When al-Qaeda invited journalists and the people at large to direct questions by internet to al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the most frequent questions was: “Why does al-Qaeda...
Iran Charged with Infiltration and Sabotage of Iraq’s Awakening Councils
General Muhammad Abdullah al-Shahwani, head of Iraq’s intelligence service, released a statement on February 27 accusing the Iranian intelligence services of planning to sabotage the largely Sunni tribal-based Awakening Councils...
Sunni Rivalries in al-Anbar Province Threaten Iraq’s Security
Growing rivalries between Sunni factions in Iraq’s al-Anbar province threaten the gains made by local “Awakening Councils” working in cooperation with U.S. forces against al-Qaeda gunmen. Leading tribal shaykhs in...
The Ansar al-Mahdi and the Continuing Threat of the Doomsday Cults in Iraq
On January 18, a day before the annual Shiite festival of Ashura, most of the concerns in Iraq revolved around possible attacks by Sunni extremists against the Shiites. What happened...
Sufi Insurgent Groups in Iraq
The mystical approach to Islam known as Sufism has deep roots in Iraqi society. Adherents to Sufism normally stress prayer, meditation and the recitation of the various names of God...