Posted on 06/16/2004 7:31:26 AM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
From the dusty Sahara to the jungles of Indonesia and in U.S.-occupied Iraq, a new generation of terrorists is emerging to take the place of elders who have been killed, captured or forced deep underground.
Deeply angry at the United States and governments that endorse its actions, they have been writing a new history of terrorism in blood, from Istanbul to Madrid to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
"These are the men that are the new 21st-century terrorists," said Evan Kohlmann, a U.S.-based terror analyst. He said it is "very literally, a group of second-generation Osama bin Ladens."
At the fore of the next generation is Abu Musab Zarqawi, 38, a former commander for bin Laden who has links to terrorist groups from North Africa to the Caucasuses. He is said to have maintained ties to al Qaeda and is thought to be leading the resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The CIA says Zarqawi was the black-clad militant who pulled a long knife from his tunic and decapitated American civilian Nicholas Berg in a gruesome video released by his killers last month.
He also is thought to have had a hand in the March 11 bombings in Madrid, countless strikes in Iraq and a failed chemical attack in his native Jordan. U.S. authorities are offering a $10 million reward for his capture.
"Zarqawi's background in jihadi activities is as extensive, in many ways, as that of Osama bin Laden," said Richard Evans, the editor at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. "He is a jihadi fixer, with access both to funds from Gulf Arab backers and a loose network of jihadi groups around the globe."
Zarqawi might be the villain of the day, but he is by no means alone among the new faces taking up senior positions in the world's most feared terrorist groups.
In Indonesia, Zulkarnaen, a former biology student who is one of the few militants from the region to have trained in Afghanistan, stepped in late last year as operations chief for the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, replacing Hambali after his August arrest. Zulkarnaen, born Aris Sumarson, is thought to be about 40.
Another new top Jemaah Islamiyah figure is Dulmatin, 33, a Malaysian electronics specialist nicknamed "Genius" who is thought to have designed the bomb used in the 2002 Bali attack that killed 202 persons. He is said to have been a used-car salesman before turning to terrorism.
In Spain, Amir Azizi, 36, a Moroccan, is thought to have supervised the bombings in Madrid, acting as a link between Zarqawi and a cell of mostly Moroccan al Qaeda members. Azizi is thought to be the leader of the al Qaeda-affiliated Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group.
Azizi has been indicted in Spain on charges of helping plan the September 11 attacks in the United States. "It is Azizi, obviously. He is the one that makes the connections, not only with all the arrested people and other suspects, but with the external groups that could have helped mastermind these bombings," said Charles Brisard, a French private investigator who works for attorneys of September 11 victims.
In Turkey, authorities say they are looking for a man in his 30s named Habib Akdas who was little known before reportedly orchestrating bombings in Istanbul in November that killed more than 60 people.
Akdas is thought to have met bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001 and received military and explosives training there. Little else is known about him.
Some of the most virulent new guard aren't waiting for the capture or killing of their predecessors to move to the fore.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"The space of movement is starting to get smaller. The grip is starting to be tightened on the holy warriors' necks and, with the spread of soldiers and police, the future is becoming frightening."
- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – 6/14/04
This is the best news in the article. Of course the Democrat-Socialist party will try to spin this as the need to return to a "don't make them mad" foreign policy which of course never worked.
Misleading header. I thought this would be an article about a family retreat to the Kennedy compound.
If 10%-15% of 1.2B Muslims are Islamofascits as Daniel Pipes suggests, then we've got a 120,000,000 person problem on our hands.
Gonna be a lot more killing before this is over.
How's JDAM re-stocking going?
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