Militants flock to Iraq jihad

2003-11-01 20:14

New York - Hundreds of militant Muslim men from Europe and the Middle East are heading to Iraq to fight the US-led occupation, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing counterterrorism officials in six countries.

"The intelligence officials say that since late summer they have detected a growing stream of itinerant Muslim militants headed for Iraq," the Times said.

The influx does not appear to be co-ordinated, but rather a movement of "young, angry men" heeding the calls of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and other militants to wage war on occupying forces in Iraq.

Most foreign fighters captured thus far in Iraq hail from Middle Eastern countries like Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, or from North Africa, a senior British official told the Times.

But signs of a movement to Iraq have also been detected in France, Germany and Saudi Arabia, the report said.

The assessments are based on surveillance of mosques and Islamic centres and on interrogations of terror suspects captured in Iraq, it said.

The report comes as the number of attacks in Iraq increases and amid troubling new signs that foreigners are involved in carrying them out.

Military officials suspect that Izzat Ibrahim, a senior official in Saddam Hussein's now toppled government, is recruiting foreign fighters and was a key organiser of recent attacks on foreign and Iraqi targets, the report said.

In all, as many as 15 militant groups may now be operating in Iraq, officials said.

Magnet for jihadists

"Iraq is a magnet for jihadists just as Afghanistan was," a senior US official said. "But the bigger question is whether the leadership is evolving or coordination. So far we haven't seen it."

Despite the recent release of an audiotape in which Osama bin Laden is heard calling young Muslims to go to Iraq, a senior European official said it was unlikely the network was behind the recent attacks.

"Al Qaeda would need a level of organisation and sophistication that I don't think it currently has," the official said.

But individual members of the network are "stirring trouble" in Iraq, he acknowledged. Nine suspects thought to have ties to al-Qaeda were arrested in Iraq in September.

- AFP