Al-Awda (guerrilla organization)

The organization was believed to be a network of underground cells, mainly in the key urban areas, composed of former Ba'ath Party officials, intelligence agents, former members of the Iraqi Republican Guard, and Fedayeen Saddam militia. The group was believed to rely on the pre-war organization of the Ba'ath Party and the relationships forged between various individuals and organizations within Saddam Hussein's regime.

The group's propaganda indicated that its goal was to restore the regime of Saddam Hussein to power, as the name indicates, and expel multinational occupation forces from the country. Al-Awda is believed is to be the term coined by the insurgents for the Ba'ath Party following the fall of Saddam Hussein from power. The name was apparently chosen for propaganda reasons to raise the threat of the Ba'ath Party's return to power and to evoke the Palestinian struggle against Israel.

In contrast to the JRTN, Ahmed has focused far more on securing political rehabilitation, amnesties and the repatriation of Baathist exiles than he has the violent overthrow of the Iraqi government and a Baathist return to power.[1]

Ahmed, in his attempts to reunite the party, and built a close working relationship with the Syrian government. Unlike al-Douri, who distrusts the Syrians due to their alliance with the Iranians. The Syrian government is quietly supporting Ahmed in order to gain more control over the Iraqi Ba'ath party.[2]

Ahmed's attempts to recruit support in Syria from former Iraqi Ba'athists is meeting some success, particularly among the poorer Sunni Arab segment of the refugee population, due in part to Ahmed's ability to offer cash incentives and Syrian residency permits due to their closeness to the Syrian government.[2]

The al-Awda group led by Ahmed is believed to contain most of the remaining leading party figures who were not arrested or executed,[3] including Mezher Motni Awad, To'ma Di'aiyef Getan, Jabbar Haddoosh, Sajer Zubair, and Nihad alDulaimi.[3]

It could be said that al-Ahmed has returned to the Ba'ath Party's original ideology of secular pan-Arab nationalism which, in many cases, has proven successful in Iraq's Shi'a dominated southern provinces.[3] However, despite his attempts, al-Ahmed has failed in his goal to overthrow al-Douri.[3] Al-Douri's faction is the largest and the most active on the Internet, and the large majority of Ba'athist websites are aligned to al-Douri.[3] Another failure is that al-Ahmed's faction, which is based in Syria, does not have exclusive Syrian support[3] and, considering that it is based in Syria, the party is susceptible to Syrian interference in its affairs.[3] However, despite the differences between the al-Douri and al-Ahmed factions, both of them adhere to Ba'athist thought.[3]

In contrast to al-Douri's group, al-Ahmad's faction has had success in recruiting Shi'as to the party.[3] While al-Ahmed and the faction's senior leaders are Sunnis, there are many Shiites who are working in the organization's middle level.[3] Upon his election as leader, an al-Douri faction statement said he was "of Shia origins and coming from Shia areas in Nineveh governorate".[4] In contrast to al-Ahmed, al-Douri has stuck to a more conservative policy, recruiting members from a largely Sunni-dominated areas.[3]

• Khaleej Times article