'Foreigners' behind attacks

2005-05-11 16:57

Ranwa Yehia

Cairo - Iraqi security officials and politicians continue to blame suicide attacks in Iraq on foreigners - but have yet to provide any serious insight into what lies behind their recent increase.

More than 200 Iraqis had been killed in at least 10 suicide attacks in the past 10 days up to Wednesday.

The US military said attacks had doubled to 135 in April compared to earlier months.

Security officials in Baghdad and Karbala interviewed by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa, on Wednesday said they believed all the suicide attackers were foreigners, not Iraqis.

Chief Abbas Saber of Karbala police said: "Not one of the terrorists who have been arrested have said in confession that Iraqis are involved in suicide attacks.

'Suicide attackers are Arabs'

"They said Iraqis have helped logistically, but that the attackers are all Arabs from neighbouring countries."

The head of the Iraqi Democratic Movement, Aziz al-Yasseri, said: "At least 90% of suicide attackers are Arabs, not Iraqis."

A May 9 report in the Arab daily al-Hayat said that between 2003 and 2004, at least 2 500 Saudis infiltrated Iraq in order to fight.

Of them, 500 were killed, 100 arrested and the rest were "still waging battle".

A May 5 report in the Saudi al-Watan newspaper said that 137 Saudis were arrested in Syrian towns, trying to cross into Iraq.

However, Colonel Hassan Ahmad from the Salahedin police in Tikrit countered these views.

Organising terrorist networks

He said: "A small number of suicide attackers are foreigners, while most of them are Iraqis."

Ahmad's argued that US prisons formed "the biggest centres" for organising terrorist networks.

He said: "The US forces do not distinguish those they arrest, which puts into prison many innocent Iraqis whose psychological state at the time is taken advantage of by these groups.

"They give them contact names and numbers to perform operations when they get out."

In Baghdad, deputy prime minister Roz Shawis said elements of the former Baath regime were active in suicide attacks.

With no clear answer on who was actually staging the attacks, officials were also not clear why such attacks had stepped up recently.

Development of democratic process

Salahedin police chief Ahmad said one reason could be the "absurdity of the political situation and lack of any hope that such vagueness will end".

He said: "People, especially those who were employed in the army, have no more hope of finding a source of income."

Shawis said: "Terrorists are taking advantage of this transition period to sabotage the development of the democratic process in the country."

Yasseri said the attacks now were to prove that neither the defence nor interior ministries had control of the security situation.

- SAPA