.Iraq: Foreign Fighters Recruited from US and Europe
While the United States and European Union nations are attempting to keep Islamic extremists and terrorists out of their countries, intelligence officers have discovered evidence that Americans and Europeans are being recruited to go to Iraq to fight the US-led coalition forces.
Up to 150 Islamic extremists from Britain have reportedly traveled to Iraq to join the foreign legion of Al-Qaeda to fight coalition forces, the Sunday Times of London reported.
The report quoted senior security sources as saying leaders of the Iraqi insurgency have set up a "foreign legion" composed exclusively of westerners to fight with the insurgents against British and U.S. forces. According to the report, some of the radicals are trained for basic combat skills while others are planning to carry out suicide attacks.
These Western foreign fighters are suspected to be under the direction of the Al-Qaeda commander in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Little evidence is available, but according to Saudi and Israeli investigations of 154 foreign fighters in Iraq, "The largest group [of foreign fighters] is young kids who see the images [of war] on TV and are reading the stuff on the internet. Or they see the name of a cousin on the list or a guy who belongs to their tribe, and they feel a responsibility to go." This suggests that foreign fighters come self-motivated, ready to sacrifice before funneling themselves into insurgent networks within Iraq.
The young Islamic extremists moving from western Europe to Iraq has been on the rise over the past two years, fueled mostly by growing resentment about US and British policy on Iraq, said the Sunday newspaper.
Intelligence experts say that suspects have been secretly apprehended at British airports in the past few months when they were on the way to join the terrorist group. Estimates from the International Institute for Strategic Studies indicated that one in 10 of the 20,000 insurgents in Iraq was foreign-born.
American intelligence officials and terrorism specialists paint a similar portrait of the suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Iraq: Prior to the Iraq war, they were not Islamic extremists seeking to attack the United States, as Al Qaeda did four years ago, but are part of a new generation of terrorists responding to calls to defend their fellow Muslims from ''crusaders" and ''infidels."
Foreign militants make up only a small percentage of the insurgents fighting in Iraq, as little as 10 percent, according to US military and intelligence officials. The top general in Iraq said late last month that about 600 foreign fighters have been captured or killed by coalition forces since the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections. The wider insurgency, numbering in the tens of thousands, is believed to consist of former Iraqi soldiers, Saddam Hussein loyalists, and members of Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority.
But the impact of the foreign fighters has been enormous. They are blamed for the almost daily suicide attacks against US and Iraqi forces and have killed thousands of civilians, mostly members of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, according to the Boston Globe.
Their exploits have been responsible for much of the headline-grabbing carnage recently, contributing to the slide in American public support for the war.There have been nearly 500 car bombings since the US-led coalition handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government one year ago, US military statistics indicate. In the last two months, car bombs and suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,400 people, according to the Associated Press.
An Islamic group known as the Muslim Brotherhood Movement recently called on followers of radical Islam throughout the United States to help fight the US in Iraq. In a statement, the leaders wrote:
"There is no alternative other than that the [Muslim] peoples continue their political and national support of the resistance, materially and morally, in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan...
"Islam considers the resistance to be Jihad for the sake of Allah and this is a commandment, a personal obligation [fardhayn] incumbent on all of the residents of the [all] countries. [This commandment] takes precedence over all other [religious] duties. Even a woman is obligated to go to war, [even] without her husband's permission, and youth are permitted to go out and fight."
WebCommentary
Up to 150 Islamic extremists from Britain have reportedly traveled to Iraq to join the foreign legion of Al-Qaeda to fight coalition forces, the Sunday Times of London reported.
The report quoted senior security sources as saying leaders of the Iraqi insurgency have set up a "foreign legion" composed exclusively of westerners to fight with the insurgents against British and U.S. forces. According to the report, some of the radicals are trained for basic combat skills while others are planning to carry out suicide attacks.
These Western foreign fighters are suspected to be under the direction of the Al-Qaeda commander in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Little evidence is available, but according to Saudi and Israeli investigations of 154 foreign fighters in Iraq, "The largest group [of foreign fighters] is young kids who see the images [of war] on TV and are reading the stuff on the internet. Or they see the name of a cousin on the list or a guy who belongs to their tribe, and they feel a responsibility to go." This suggests that foreign fighters come self-motivated, ready to sacrifice before funneling themselves into insurgent networks within Iraq.
The young Islamic extremists moving from western Europe to Iraq has been on the rise over the past two years, fueled mostly by growing resentment about US and British policy on Iraq, said the Sunday newspaper.
Intelligence experts say that suspects have been secretly apprehended at British airports in the past few months when they were on the way to join the terrorist group. Estimates from the International Institute for Strategic Studies indicated that one in 10 of the 20,000 insurgents in Iraq was foreign-born.
American intelligence officials and terrorism specialists paint a similar portrait of the suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Iraq: Prior to the Iraq war, they were not Islamic extremists seeking to attack the United States, as Al Qaeda did four years ago, but are part of a new generation of terrorists responding to calls to defend their fellow Muslims from ''crusaders" and ''infidels."
Foreign militants make up only a small percentage of the insurgents fighting in Iraq, as little as 10 percent, according to US military and intelligence officials. The top general in Iraq said late last month that about 600 foreign fighters have been captured or killed by coalition forces since the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections. The wider insurgency, numbering in the tens of thousands, is believed to consist of former Iraqi soldiers, Saddam Hussein loyalists, and members of Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority.
But the impact of the foreign fighters has been enormous. They are blamed for the almost daily suicide attacks against US and Iraqi forces and have killed thousands of civilians, mostly members of Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, according to the Boston Globe.
Their exploits have been responsible for much of the headline-grabbing carnage recently, contributing to the slide in American public support for the war.There have been nearly 500 car bombings since the US-led coalition handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government one year ago, US military statistics indicate. In the last two months, car bombs and suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,400 people, according to the Associated Press.
An Islamic group known as the Muslim Brotherhood Movement recently called on followers of radical Islam throughout the United States to help fight the US in Iraq. In a statement, the leaders wrote:
"There is no alternative other than that the [Muslim] peoples continue their political and national support of the resistance, materially and morally, in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan...
"Islam considers the resistance to be Jihad for the sake of Allah and this is a commandment, a personal obligation [fardhayn] incumbent on all of the residents of the [all] countries. [This commandment] takes precedence over all other [religious] duties. Even a woman is obligated to go to war, [even] without her husband's permission, and youth are permitted to go out and fight."
WebCommentary
posted by madtom at 10:26 AM
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