Confessions Show Terror's Spread in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi government television has repeatedly broadcast confessions of what it says were foreign terrorists - 17 Arabs and two Iranians - who allegedly infiltrated the country's porous borders to fight U.S.-led coalition forces.
The confessions, aired several times over the weekend, coincided with the massing of U.S. and Iraqi forces near Fallujah for an anticipated showdown with insurgents who have made the city their headquarters.
The broadcasts were seen as a means of preparing the population for the coming attack on Fallujah, where the government says it's after foreigners and "terrorists" not city residents who are not involved in the insurgency.
The station, Iraqiya, showed 19 men ages of 20 to 40, dressed in blue jumpsuits and lined up against a wall while the camera panned their pale, bearded faces.
An announcer read a statement accusing the prisoners "of carrying out mass killings, sabotage, inciting sectarianism and racism, destroying the economic and the social infrastructure of our people to take us back to the Dark Ages."
Of the 19 - five Syrians, five Saudis, four Jordanians, two Egyptians, a Palestinian and two Iranians, most were said to have entered the country in October, 2003 during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
One of them, Youssef Hassan Suleiman, said he came from the same town in Jordan as did Iraq's most feared terrorist mastermind, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
"I had $2,000 on me," he said with a smile when asked if he brought money to help finance the insurgency.
Saleh Said al-Rahmani, of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, said that he crossed the Saudi border to Iraq last Ramadan to follow "the call" - a phrase normally meaning to spread the message of Islam.
A young Palestinian, Tayseer Hassan Halabi, said he entered Iraq from Syria where he lived temporarily. "I came to Iraq when the war started to join the fighters," he said. Halabi said that he made contacts with insurgents only after arriving in Iraq.
Others such as Ali Hassan from Yemen, Amer al-Abbas Mohammed from Jordan and Anaas Farouq Ahmed from Syria did not give details of their activities here.
Iraqiya said the 19 were among 167 people arrested recently by Iraqi police and who are now under interrogation.
Iraq's interim government and the United States have been pushing Iraq's neighbors, especially Syria, to secure their borders to prevent foreign fighters from neighboring Arab states and elsewhere to enter Iraq and attack coalition forces.
