Intro and Analysis
The latest statement from Jaysh al-Mujahideen- a Salafi, anti-Shi'a faction that aims to overthrow the central government- comes in the context of remarks attributed to Osama al-Nujaifi claiming coordination with Jaysh al-Mujahideen inter alios in forming the "Mosul Battalions" to fight the Islamic State (IS). Now, as I noted in the previous analysis of JRTN's latest statement, there is nothing in the original Nujaifi statement that mentions this, but the fact that Jaysh al-Mujahideen has issued a denial of coordination statement denouncing Nujaifi illustrates the direction of the group's current priorities. Just as JRTN has no interest at the moment in a wider confrontation with IS, so too is this the case with Jaysh al-Mujahideen, whatever tensions have emerged at the local level in areas like al-Karma in eastern Anbar.
Ultimately, the non-IS insurgent groups, with the exception of Jamaat Ansar al-Islam that has clashed w/ IS multiple times anyway, are pursuing a dangerous strategy if they think they can get the better of IS after achieving the hoped for "liberation of Baghdad." In not confronting IS beyond some localized clashes over its assertions of power, the non-IS insurgent groups are risking a Raqqa province-style scenario in which they are confined to fighting IS in the countryside with minor hit-and-run attacks that do not change the balance of power. Indeed one should note in this context that Jaysh al-Mujahideen originally had a slice of power in the city of Fallujah, but has since been subsumed by IS.
Despite this refusal to engage in open warfare against IS, it would seem there are some implicit digs at IS in this statement, with the decrying of concepts of takfir (fitting in w/ Jaysh al-Mujahideen's regarding IS as extremist, though in declaring Shi'a to be 'Rafidites' the Jaysh al-Mujahideen are equally guilty of takfir, just not at other Sunnis).
Translation
"For with the disintegration of Maliki's army and the liberation of the Sunni provinces from the grip of the Majusi government, the parties (considered false witnesses against the Ahl al-Sunna) have suffered losses: they who were participating as collaborators and agents in the provinces in the suffering of our people by virtue of their existence as false witnesses in the hateful sectarian government waging war on Muslims, targeting the Ahl al-Sunna and working to exterminate them: such parties have damaged their contemptible interests so long as they have taken from the blood of the Ahl al-Sunna as a commodity for acquisition.
These parties are working today in every form to return to their prior positions in the Majusi government at the expense of the Ahl al-Sunna that will lead to the return of the Majusi armies and their sectarian militias to occupy the Ahl al-Sunna's areas and take them and honour from the necks of the Muslims.
Indeed any call to form new Sahwa forces is in reality a call to rescue the Iranian project and its instrument (the Safavid government) from the predicament into which it has fallen on account of personal, partisan and corrupt profiteering, whatever the pretexts of justification.
In the same way, the game these sides are playing on the string of sins committed by some is to fan discord, deepen internecine fighting and stir up internal warfare, and the only result will be to strike the blessed Sunni revolution and rescue the Safavid occupation from ruin.
In this regard, we declare to be false what the media attributed to the one called "Nujaifi" with allegations of Jaysh al-Mujahideen support for him in forming the battalions in Mosul or others besides them in the so-called names and qualities that form a step towards the framework of Sahwa forces and attempts by the Safavid government to make advances and restore their loathsome political project.
And we confirm that our enemy is the Safavid enemy and whosoever stands with it and assists it in any form, whatever their pretexts, just as we declare bara' [repentance and innocence] to Almighty God from every mistake committed in the liberated areas and the attempts by several to embargo the resolution of the Ummah, deprive the Ahl al-Sunna of their revolution, attack the mujahideen and the people more generally, as well as extremism in bloodshed, takfir, cutting short the project of the Ummah and its hope in a group without others beside it, just as is the state of the people of extremism.
And we confirm that we are swords at the hands of our people and our tribes in the face of the Majus and whosoever helps them until we liberate our land bit by bit and restore the usurped dignity of our Ummah. Thus we are with our people at every step advancing on the path of protecting the existence of the Ahl al-Sunna, their religion and their honor until truth prevails, not delusion or imagination.
Media Committee of Jaysh al-Mujahideen.
6 Shuwwal 1435 AH (2 August 2014)."