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June 2010 - News
June 2010

Iraqi Ba'athists hold first public meeting in Damascus

Iraqi Baath Party

Members of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party held their first public rally in the Syrian capital on April 29.

About 400 party members gathered in a state-own cultural centre in Kafer Suseh to call for the expulsion of US forces from their country and to commemorate the April 28 birthday of executed Iraqi Ba'ath Party leader and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, who served under the deposed ruler as governor of the city of Mosul in Iraq's north-west, leads one of the largest factions of party loyalists in Damascus. During the gathering, speakers called on Iraqi resistance groups to reunite around the Ba'ath Party banner and to continue their resistance until Iraq is free from all foreign soldiers.

"We are here today to voice our support for the liberation of Iraq and to demand that all Americans be kicked out of our land," Mohammad Jawad Faris, a Damascus-based member of the Union of Iraqi Liberation Forces, an alliance of insurgent groups in Iraq, said. "It is very important to hold these gatherings to stress the culture of resistance among Iraqis inside and outside the country."

Following the 2003 US invasion and collapse of Hussein's regime, thousands of Ba'athists fled into Syria looking for shelter. They split into two main factions – one led by Ahmed and the other led by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a high-ranking military commander and vice president of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council in Hussein's Iraq.

Speaking to reporters at the meeting, Ghazwan al-Qubaisi, the second-in-command in the Ahmed faction, said negotiations were being undertaken to unite the two blocs.

"We have launched negotiations to reunite the party," Qubaisi said. "There is no difference between Ba'ath Party members here and those there [inside Iraq]... All are contributing to the liberation of the country."

The presence of Iraqi Ba'athists in Syria has caused tension between Damascus and Baghdad which has accused them of being behind a number of bombings in Iraq.

Obaida Hamad