Qaeda Split.

In a tape posted on the internet a few days earlier and addressed to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a person from al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia calls the latter "Master Shaikh" and urges him to replace the Iraq-based group's leadership with Iraqis. The current group's leader, Abu Ayub al-Masri, is said to be Egyptian who succeeded Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi - a Jordanian terrorist killed in a US air strike near Ba'quba, north of Baghdad, in June. The development points to a split within the group.

The voice complains to bin Laden that al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia is killing and torturing civilians indiscriminately and, in the process, has caused enmity among Iraqis of both the Sunni and Shi'ite Arab communities. He says the group is killing even Sunni religious figures who do not agree to join the Neo-Salafi movement.

Already al-Qaeda's No. 2, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, had criticised Zarqawi for having waged war against the Shi'ites and killed so many innocent civilians among them. In a letter to Zarqawi intercepted by US forces, Dr. Zawahiri had warned that such killings were causing revulsion among Muslims not only in Iraq but also across the Muslim world.

Al-Qaeda has vowed to topple all regimes in the Arab world for the sake of its caliphate project. It wants all other regimes in the Muslim world to convert into Neo-Salafism or to be overthrown.

On Oct. 19, dozens of black-clad Neo-Salafi gunmen, toting assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, paraded down a main street in Ramadi, war-torn capital of Anbar. They waved banners identifying them as members of the MSC. Commenting about the brazen demonstration, Anbar's former governor Shaikh Fassal al-Ga'ood said: "The problem is that the government is weak. This issue takes time, training and weapons. The police force in Anbar now cannot stand up to al-Qaeda fighters". The northern city of Mosul on Oct. 19 saw an outbreak in violence, with suicide bombers targeting a police station and a US convoy, killing at least 22 people.