A member of the Palestinian government has alleged the U.S. was merely removing its own “pawn” during the recent raid to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In a statement published in the Palestinian Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily newspaper, Palestinian Authority member Muwaffaq Matar said the U.S. planted Baghdadi and formed the ISIS terror group. The Jerusalem Post obtained a translated copy of the comments by Matar, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council.
“They [the US] killed their pawn, who they planted in the open, borderless territories of Iraq and Syria after they created an organization-state of barbarity, terror and racism, for which they chose the name ‘the Islamic State,'” Matar said.
Baghdadi killed himself with a suicide vest after U.S. Army Delta Force members cornered him in a tunnel near his hidden compound in Syria’s Idlib province.
Matar, who is also a regular columnist to the Palestinian publication, went on to say that the death of Baghdadi was merely the U.S. cutting off the tail of the monster, which can regrow.
Since Baghdadi’s death, a top ISIS spokesman and potential successor to lead the group was also killed in a U.S. airstrike. An intercepted ISIS audio recording named Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi as the terror group’s new leader while Baghdadi’s brother-in-law said leadership instead would go to Hajji Abdullah.
In his column, Matar said to truly defeat said the “monster,” one would have to take out the head — Israel.
“However, this monster has a head, and in it is a brain that is capable of growing a different tail and wings. . . The occupation, settlement, terror, racism, crimes against humanity and rebellion against UN laws and conventions have a state,” Matar said. “They named it ‘Israel’ and established it on the land of Palestine, which is the Palestinian people’s historical and natural right.”
Matar also said Israel and ISIS are twin organizations.
“[ISIS] is an organization that, in regard to its crimes, there is nothing similar to it in the modern history of the region except for a defective, colonialist, settling, occupying and racist state for which they chose the name ‘the State of Israel,'” he said.
Palestinian Authority member have previously advanced theories of an Israeli-ISIS connection, according to the Jerusalem Post. There have also been political cartoons comparing Israel and ISIS and alleging cooperation between the two.
The Trump administration froze aid to the Palestinian Authority in June of 2018, over its own ties to terrorism. An April report revealed the Palestinian Authority had diverted U.S. aid funds to its “Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund” which provides a benefit for the families of Palestinians injured and killed committing attacks on Israel.
