APS om svenske Mohamed Moumou, alias Abu Qaswarah,

Arab Press Service Diplomat beskrev i en artikel i oktober 2008 vilken roll svenske Mohamed Moumou, som vid sin död i Irak blev berömd under namnet Abu Qaswarah, spelade i al Qaida. Enligt APS var betydelsen större än hittills känt. Å andra sidan verkar vissa av uppgifterna i texten vara tvivelaktiga.

I artikeln är namnet stavat Mamo.

The APS source says Mamo's killing underlined intelligence US forces had obtained about an alliance between Iran's theocracy and al-Qaeda. This, the APS source says, is a "temporary link" involving Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is the main arm of the supremacists in the theocracy, and al-Qaeda's Iran-based "al-Hay'at-ul-Khassah li-Bilad il-Sham" (the special authority for the Levant - Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon & Palestine) headed by Sa'd bin Laden, a son of al-Qaeda leader 'Usama bin Laden.

This body includes Kamal al-Shirazi, another Iran-based Qaeda commander of Saudi nationality, and Mamo who led al-Qaeda's operations in Iraq. Mamo was also close to al-Qaeda leaders in Algeria, where its suicide bombers on Aug. 19-20 killed over 55 security forces and police recruits.

Mamo was until early 2008 al-Qaeda's leader in Europe. Wanted in all EU capitals as a top terrorist, Mamo then succeeded Abu Ayub al-Masri in directing al-Qaeda operations in Iraq. A nephew of Qaeda's No. 2 man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Masri now is in charge of both Iraq and Syria and has a secret training camp in Aleppo, working closely with the military intelligence of Syria's 'Alawite/Ba'thist regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian military intelligence is headed by Assad's brother-in-law Gen Asef Shawkat.

Working under Mamo in Iraq is a Libyan known as Abu Muhajer, in charge of the north-eastern Iraqi province of Diyala. Working in parallel with Masri are two key Qaeda figures: "al-'Amid Suhail" who is in charge of Palestine and "al-'Amid Tlas" (a relative of Syria's former defence minister Gen. Mustafa Tlas) who is in charge of liaison with the Syrian military intelligence.

These men used to work with Brig Gen Muhammad Suleiman who was assassinated recently near Tartus and who used to be President Assad's top security man in charge of armaments for Lebanon's Hizbullah, al-Qaeda and Fatah al-Islam (FaI) of Shaker al-'Absi. FaI, a Neo-Salafi group, in 2007 fought a war with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in the northern Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in which hundreds were killed.

Mamo was a tall man with black hair aged between 45-50. He was one of the top five men in al-Qaeda's hierarchy whose leadership now is based in the tribal border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. From there, Masri and Mamo used to take orders through the Iran-based body. Mamo was also in charge of "sleeper cells" in Bilad al-Sham (Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon & Palestine), the GCC region and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia & Yemen). According to a source who earlier this year had a meeting with Mamo, these cells will be activated gradually as US forces begin to leave Iraq. Mamo said some cells were to be activated in tandem with a series of attacks by the Quds Force, IRGC's external arm, and Hizbullah units seconded to Iran-based camps training Shi'ites for operations in Iraq and the rest of the Arab world.