Nepalese Civilian Murdered by Ansar al-Sunnah (UPDATED)

UPDATE 6/21/05Yesterday we reported that Bilprasad "Binkumar" Gurung was Japanese. The name did not sound Japanese, but all media reports were that the victim was from Japan. Today, thanks to Chad Evenas for e-mailing me the story, we learn that Bilprasad "Binkumar" Gurung was probably from Nepal.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna murdered 12 Nepalese civilians in August of last year. If you can stomach scrolling passed the images from the snuff-murder video made by the jihadis, take a minute to check out all the comments from Nepalese readers. The Nepalese may be Buddhist, but they certainly are not pacifists.

Khaleej Times:

Japan said Tuesday that a man Islamic extremists in Iraq said they had killed in an ambush on a convoy serving US-led forces was not Japanese, as stated by the militants.

“The name of the individual is clearly not Japanese. We believe the person was from another country,” said an official with the foreign ministry’s terrorism prevention division....

Gurung is a common name in Nepal.

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The only group of terrorists worse than Abu Musab al Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq are The Army of Ansar al Sunnah. These are some evil sadistic dudes. While they don't get as much press as Zarqawi's group (and they actually are loosely linked with Zarqawi) they do just as much damage and specialize in murdering Kurds and Turkish civilians. They announced today that they murdered a Japanese man Bilprasad "Binkumar" Gurung.

This is the same group that murdered Japanese hostage Akihiko Saito. It was Zarqawi who personally beheaded Japanese hostage Shosei Koda.

Developing.....

SITE:

Ansar al-Sunnah claims responsibility for the murder of Bilprasad (alias Binkumar) Gurung, a Japanese contractor for the America-Iraqi Solutions Group, and six of his guards who worked for the same corporation. The ambush of this convoy was executed yesterday, as the group was coming out of al-Walid Base near Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

According to the message, Gurung and his bodyguards were ambushed and the ensuing battle “killed them all, and also this dirty Westerner.” Two of the guards were indicated to have been captured and an “investigation” divulged that Gurung and the guards were on a “mission to distribute the non-believers’ guards (National Guards) salaries.” [SITE has more for subscribers]

He was apparently an employee of The American-Iraqi Solutions Group. From their website:

American-Iraqi Solutions Group (AISG) is a specific grouping of international firms within Iraq and consists of a core American-Iraqi team all under Iraqi and American ownership. AISG is an assembly Iraqi and international firms that have come together to jointly work towards the reconstruction of Iraq.....

Due to security issues that currently exist in Iraq we are obligated to protect the safety and well being of our Iraqi staff, teams, and personnel. So as you read and learn more about AISG, please remember that some facts, names, pictures and specifics have been intentionally left out to protect our Iraqi staff who place their lives on the line to be partners in the reconstruction of their nation. We work hard towards the day when the security Iraq is stabilized and this concern will no longer be an issue.

And from another page at their website this interesting tidbit:

AISS built an organization of professionals with cross cultural diversity who have years of experience in multiple levels of security development. AISS employs over 250 foreign professional security operators and managers. They coordinate missions with over 2000 personally trained Iraqi security forces making AISS the most unique security provider in Iraq. AISS tactfully designed a "Low Profile" mission attitude, there achieved goal allows them to move in and about Iraq with the least amount of attention with the greatest success. They designed 200 "Low Profile" vehicles for a varying number of missions each day.

Here is a media report on what looks to be the same incident. It apparently happened last Sunday:

Chijan said the badly decomposed bodies of another seven men, including one Iraqi and six believed to be "Asians," were brought to the hospital after being killed in a convoy ambush several days ago. Most had been shot in the face.

The slain Iraqi was identified as Ahmed Adnan, said his cousin, Hussein Ali.

Ali told the AP his cousin worked for the U.S.-owned American-Iraqi Solutions Group, a large company dealing in Iraqi reconstruction projects, with its headquarters in Carson City, Nev.

The company later sent the AP a statement saying 11 of its employees were killed Sunday when one of its five-vehicle supply convoys was ambushed east of Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of Baghdad, by up to 20 heavily armed bandits firing from an overpass.

And from the AP today:

In the Internet claim, the militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army said its fighters attacked a convoy leaving a base near the town of Ramadi, killing the seven men and capturing two other Iraqi guards. The statement did not say when the attack took place.

The claim could not be confirmed. The statement, posted on a web forum often used by Ansar al-Sunnah and other militant groups, included pictures of the contractor's identification cards.

The cards identified him as Binkumar Gurung, working for the American-Iraq Solution Group, contracted by the Pentagon. The cards included a licence to carry weapons.

The statement said the contractor was Japanese, but no passport was included and his picture and name appeared to be South Asian. One of the cards also gave his name as "Gurung Bilprasad, alias Binkumar."

Ansar al-Sunnah, unlike al Qaeda in Iraq which uses Islamic bulletin boards, often uses a number of free servers to host their websites. This means their websites tend to get taken down fairly quickly. We'll let you know if we find their site.

UPDATE: Apparently, Ansar al-Sunna is using an e-mail list these days. Vlad has a copy of the original posting here if you speak Arabic. Below are images posted along with the communique. Besides Bilprasad "Binkumar" Gurung, the following men were also murdered by Ansar al-Sunnah and photos of their identification badges posted by the terrorists:
Mahmoud Yasin Mahdi
Omar Khaery Haren
Farook Jamal Helal
Ahmed Adnan
Mohaned Khddayer Abbas

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