Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah جيش الطائفة المنصورة
Leaders	Abu Umar al-Baghdadi[1]
Dates of operation	May? 2004 – 16 October 2006
Active regions	Iraq
Ideology	Salafist jihadism Anti-Shi'ism
Part of	MSC (from 15 January 2006)
Opponents	Iraq  United States Mahdi Army  Iraqi Kurdistan Islamic Army of Iraq
Battles and wars	Iraq War Iraq Spring Fighting of 2004 Islamic Army–Al-Qaeda conflict Sectarian violence in Iraq (2006–2008)

Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah (Arabic: جيش الطائفة المنصورة, romanized: Army of the Victorious Ta'ifa) was an Iraqi Salafi-jihadist insurgent group that fought against US troops and their local allies during the Iraq War. In 2006 the group aligned itself with al-Qaeda and helped establish the Mujahideen Shura Council.

History

The group was founded by Sheikh Abu Umar al-Ansari, but exactly when is uncertain.

In May 2004, Jaish al-Taif al-Mansour kidnapped Interenergoservice workers Alexander Gordienko and Andrei Meshcherakov^[2] and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq.

This group gained notoriety on August 31, 2005,^[3] thanks to the mortar shelling near the Al-Aim Bridge over the Tigris River, across which a Shia procession marched to the tomb of Imam Musa al-Kazim. As a result of the bombing, 7 people were killed and 35 injured,^[4] and the crush on the bridge estimated that between 953 and 1,033 people were killed and between 322 and 815 injured.

On January 15, 2006, an organization known as the Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq announced its establishment. Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah has been declared one of its constituent groups, along with al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Monotheism Brigades, the Sarai al-Jihad group, the al-Ghurab Brigades and the al-Ahwal Brigades.

See also

• Al-Qaeda in Iraq
• Iraqi insurgency
• List of armed groups in the Iraqi Civil War

References