Posted on 06/16/2002 5:43:34 AM PDT by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials suspect that Friday’s attack outside the US consulate in Karachi was carried out by a freshly minted coalition of militant organisations drawn from the remnants of extremist groups scattered during a crackdown Musharraf ordered earlier this year.
The new coalition of militant groups is called Lashkar-e-Omar, formed by guerrilla fighters in January after leaders of several extremist groups had been arrested.
According to the Pakistani officials, Lashkar-e-Omar was formed by the survivors of three militant Islamic groups targeted by Musharraf: Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and the Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The officials said the three Islamic groups, as well as stragglers from other militant organisations, reached an “operational agreement” to pool their resources and launch joint attacks.
The new coalition, Lashkar-e-Omar, drew its name and inspiration from Ahmed Omar Sheikh, the former leader of Jaish-e-Muhammad accused of masterminding the kidnapping and murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl.
While a group calling itself Al Qanoon took responsibility for the attack in Karachi, Pakistani officials said the claim appeared to mirror a common pattern of larger groups of militant guerrillas spinning off smaller units assigned to stage single attacks.
“There is near unanimity of opinion among intelligence officials that this is the work of the loose coalition of extremist jehadis,” a senior Pakistani intelligence official said, adding that they have “possible links to Al-Qaida.
This is interesting in the light of material in "See no evil" by Baer, which discusses how these groups form, change, and evolve over time. Who, exactly, are the central figures such a group? Baer seems to believe they might be Iranians. But could they be Saudi, like bin Laden? And by creating groups like this, they can confuse those seeking the deadly root.
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