Posted on 10/02/2005 8:15:08 AM PDT by Valin
AMMAN (Reuters) - Foreign al Qaeda militants waging a campaign of suicide car bombings in Iraq plan to send some fighters home in preparation for similar operations in their own countries, the Iraqi interior minister said on Sunday.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabor said documents found with Abu Azzam, said to be a lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, signalled a plan to send foreign Arab Sunni militants back home to widen the battlefield beyond Iraq.
"We got hold of a very important letter from Abu Azzam to Zarqawi asking him to begin to move a number of Arab fighters to the countries they came from to transfer their experience in car bombings in Iraq," Jabor told Reuters in an interview in Amman.
"So you will see insurgencies in other countries," said Jabor, a member of the Shi'ite Islamist SCIRI party, a key component of the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led coalition government.
U.S. and Iraqi forces tracked Abu Azzam, an Iraqi, and killed him last week dealing what a U.S. commander called a serious blow to the group responsible for some of the biggest suicide attacks over the past two years.
Hundreds of Islamist fighters had already left Iraq in recent months, Jabor said, though security forces were also braced for a spike in car bomb attacks ahead of October 15's referendum on a post-Saddam Hussein constitution.
Jabor's own brother was kidnapped in Baghdad on Saturday, police sources said. The minister did not comment.
Iraq's leaders have urged fellow Arab governments, including Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, to do more to help.
MAGNET
The new administration in Baghdad has struggled to win acceptance from the Sunni leaders of the rest of the Arab world, however, who remain suspicious of its dependence on Washington and sectarian ties to non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran.
Jabor said intelligence indicated some Arab militants had already left Iraq after losing ground during last month's assault by U.S. and Iraqi forces on the northern town of Tal Afar, where more than 1,500 insurgents were captured.
"They are leaving Iraq to transfer their training skills in car bombings to their original countries," he said.
Iraq has become a magnet for Islamic militants similar to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan two decades ago, U.S. and Arab security officials say.
While the Afghan war against the Soviets was largely fought on a rural battlefield, security officials say Iraq is providing extremists with more comprehensive skills including training in operations for populated areas.
But Jabor said Zarqawi's recruitment of Iraqi militants such as Abu Azzam indicated more Iraqis could be joining al Qaeda, even though many local insurgents owe their loyalties to tribal and other nationalist leaders rather than foreign Islamists.
"Some of the experience has been transferred to Iraqis like Abu Azzam and others, but I believe some of the leaders of the Arab Afghans will remain in Iraq," Jabor added, referring to foreign Arabs, like the Jordanian Zarqawi, who had operated in Afghanistan alongside the likes of Osama bin Laden.
Zarqawi's influence on the overall insurgency was also diminishing with rise of other Iraqi groups, Jabor added.
"Zarqawi is no longer important in my view. His worth or importance has ended with the confusion that is happening where there are now Iraqis and others (in the insurgency)," he said.
REFERENDUM
Jabor said foreign Arab militants now numbered less than 1,000 compared to between 2,500 and 3,000 six months ago. They were much weaker but readier to inflict more civilian casualties: "There are indications of a sharp weakening of the capabilities of the insurgents," Jabor said.
Citing intelligence reports, Jabor said effectiveness of insurgent operations dropped to a of low 25 percent from 80 percent in terms of killing designated targets, primarily with a sharp drop in attacks on Iraqi security forces although attacks against U.S. forces had not fallen.
But Jabor warned that insurgents were escalating violence in the run up to the referendum to sow fear among Iraqis.
"They will do their best until next week to increase attacks ... to scare Iraqis not to participate," Jabor said.
But they were targeting civilian areas outside the main cities and in villages where Iraqi forces had a lesser presence than in the capital Baghdad and the major cities, he said.
Iraqi authorities already had a plan to implement a two pronged plan that involved extensive searches in the capital.
"There is a public plan and a secret one; the secret one will be very effective in preventing the terrorists from reaching the polling stations," Jabor said.
"We will do house to house searches to find car bombs because we have information that they want to store them in homes before curfew and then use them in Baghdad."
"Planning for other operations." Right. Hitler planned operations in der Fuerherbunker also.
> ... to transfer their experience in car bombings in Iraq ...
Wanted
Car Bomb Drivers
Experience Required
So will Reuters use this as a wind-up to:
we can leave Iraw now?
or "Bush responsible for exporting car bombers"?
For some reason experienced suicide bombers are hard to come by?
or "Bush responsible for exporting car bombers"?
You need to ask? Of course it's his fault.
Iraq says Zarqawi sending some militants back home
Sounds like "outsourcing" to me.
The day that all of us confer an instant death sentence, with summary executions, on these barbarians, we'll begin to put a dent in their reign of terror. Their violence spewing imams and so-called 'apologists' ought to be included, as if they, too, were in the field doing their dirty deeds.
They have poor management skills
So...they're gonna start bombing in Iran and Syria?
Let's hope they do not find their way over the Rio Grande via Mexico.
At a time when he needs forces, if he is sending them away after training, he must feel the end is near for his cause in Iraq
"So you will see insurgencies in other countries,"
Like someone who created a monster that turns around and bits them in the ass, tt would be fitting for Syria and Iran to have to deal with their own terrorists.
Yes, that would be funny. They can sit there and blow each other up until the end of time.
You also might look south to Saudi Arabia. there's a low level civilwar going on there now, and has been for some time now.
The day that all of us confer an instant death sentence, with summary executions, on these barbarians, we'll begin to put a dent in their reign of terror.
Where are they (The terrorists) winning? When I look around I see them losing.
They still operate. They still kill at near will. They still inflict physical, psychological and economic pain wherever they exist. That they win or lose isn't the point---they still exist and still destroy.
ping
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