U.S. Sees Chechen Hand in Iraq Attacks

The Moscow Times ^ | Jan. 13, 2004 | Jim Krane

[Jacob Kell]

CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq -- Iraqi guerrillas blasting U.S. military convoys with improvised bombs hidden at roadsides may have learned tactics by talking to Chechen rebels and Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan, a U.S. Army intelligence officer said.

Iraqi rebels have been communicating with such outsiders through e-mail, telephone and personal visits, said Major Thomas Sirois, chief intelligence officer of the U.S. Army's 3rd Corps Support Command, which occupies this sprawling base north of Baghdad. He declined to identify the types of communication U.S. intelligence officers have intercepted.

"I think they share information," Sirois said. "Individuals here who are fighting against us I'm sure are reaching out to see what has been successful in other locations, and probably trying to adapt those procedures here."

Some ambush techniques observed in Chechnya against the Russians and in Afghanistan against U.S. forces by al-Qaida and former Taliban militants "we've seen employed here" in Iraq, Sirois said.