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Saudi state-run Channel One TV broadcasted the first episode of a new series aimed at dissuading young Saudis from following in the footsteps of many of their contemporaries to join the jihad (holy war) earlier this week. “Jihad Experiences, the Deceit” is a five part series which will tell the stories of several young Saudis who left to Iraq to fight alongside Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Zayd Asfan, Abdullah Khoja and Walid Khan narrated their journey from ordinary Saudi youth to mujahideen and discussed the recruitment and brainwashing techniques used by al Qaeda. At the end of the program, Channel...

Ten Iranian agents have been arrested in Iraq, according to an Iraqi television channel. The agents were arrested along with 88 other insurgents, al-Diyar reported on Thursday, quoting the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The ten Iranians had entered Iraq illegally, the report added.

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jaber reportedly said Sunday there were 1,000 foreign fighters in his country. Jordan's al-Arab al-Yawm daily quoted Jaber as saying al-Qaida organization in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was planning to "transfer its war from Iraq to neighboring countries." The minister added the Iraqi authorities seized a letter from Abu Azzam, al-Qaida's second-in-command who was killed in Iraq last month, to al-Zarqawi, in which he called for moving the foreign fighters from Iraq to neighboring countries to avoid a possible blow and setback in Iraq. Jaber said he believed that "terrorism will move to...

Print Preview US Army arrests Tunisian terror suspect in Iraq MIL-IRAQ-SUSPECT-ARREST US Army arrests Tunisian terror suspect in Iraq BAGHDAD, Sept 23 (KUNA) -- The US army announced on Friday that a crackdown operation in the northern city of Mosul has ended up in the arrest of a terror suspect holding a Tunisian citizenship. A statement by the Multi National Forces (MNF) in Iraq, a copy of which was received by KUNA, said the terror suspect Yusef Noureldein, also known as Ali Mabrouk and Abu-Muhammad, had been arrested on September 17. The suspect has confessed to having been recruited at...

The US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the incurgency flames, they only comprise only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents.

RIYADH, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Saudi fighters who joined the insurgency in Iraq showed few signs of militancy before the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein, according to a detailed study based on Saudi intelligence reports. Most were motivated by "revulsion at the idea of an Arab land being occupied by a non-Arab country". The study by Middle East analyst Anthony Cordesman and Saudi security adviser Nawaf Obaid may offer further fuel to critics who say that instead of weakening al Qaeda, the 2003 invasion of Iraq brought fresh recruits to Osama bin Laden's network. It said Saudi Arabia...

TAL AFAR,Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces have encircled the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar, and Iraqi authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents there _ most of them foreign fighters. The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in this town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan. The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several deadly bombings that have mainly killed civilians. Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 260 miles north of Baghdad and...

Release A050906b BAGHDAD , Iraq -- Elements from Multi-National Forces detained three foreign fighters and killed two others during a raid on a foreign fighter safehouse in the Karabilah area Sept. 6. Upon arrival at the location, Multi-National Forces were engaged by the foreign fighters occupying the safe house. Multi-National Forces personnel returned fire and assaulted the building, suffering one friendly casualty when a Multi-National Force Soldier was wounded. After evacuating the wounded personnel to a local field hospital, Multi-National Forces called in Coalition close air support and destroyed the foreign fighter safe house which was being used as an...

One of the many casualties of July 7th terrorist massacre in London is the argument that the conflict in Iraq serves to draw Islamic terrorists away from Western civilian targets toward U.S. military targets in Iraq. The so-called "flypaper theory" has always been the weakest arguments deployed on the war's behalf and the sooner it is interned, the better. (Full disclosure: I am supporter of the war and reconstruction of Iraq.) The flypaper theory held that one of the key benefits of the Iraq war was the establishment of a battlefield more to our advantage. The presence of such a...

Arianna Huffington: London: Bush’s “Flypaper Theory” is Blown to Pieces Arianna HuffingtonFri Jul 8, 1:30 AM ET Well, there goes that theory... Odds are we probably won’t be hearing for a while the Bush mantra that the reason we're fighting them over in Iraq is so we don't have to fight them here at home. For the last few months, this ludicrous shibboleth has been the president’s go-to line -- his latest rationale for slogging on in Iraq. Here he was on July 4th: "We're taking the fight to the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them...

THE vast majority of suicide attackers in Iraq are thought to be foreigners - mostly Saudis and other Arabs from the Gulf, according to US and Iraqi officials. They say the trend has become more pronounced this year with North Africans also streaming in to carry out deadly missions The bombers are recruited from Sunni communities, smuggled into Iraq from Syria after religious indoctrination, and then quickly bundled into cars or strapped with explosive vests and sent to their deaths, the officials said. The young men are not so much fighters as human bombs - a relatively small, but deadly...

The Interior Minister Baqar Soloagh Jober has announced recently that the 2nd borders forces were arrested two elements carried the Saudi ID during their attempting to trespass into Iraqi territories illegally via Syrian borders.In an exclusive statement to as-Sabah newspaper he said that the primary investigations with these two trespassers had discovered their intention to implement terrorist acts in several areas in Iraq.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Syrian authorities, under heavy American pressure to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq, have extradited more than 30 Saudis who may have sought to join the Iraqi insurgency, officials said Monday. Also Monday, the head of Syria's state-run television urged Damascus to require entry visas to safeguard Syrian security. Syria does not currently require entry visas for citizens of Arab countries, making it both an attractive holiday destination and an easier route for Arab foreign fighters. This policy, Diana Jabbour wrote in an editorial published in the Al-Thawra government newspaper, can attract "fugitives and...

Before Hadi bin Mubarak Qahtani exploded himself into an anonymous fireball, he was young and interested only in "fooling around." Like many Saudis, he was said to have experienced a religious awakening after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and dedicated himself to Allah, inspired by "the holy attack that demolished the foolish infidel Americans and caused many young men to awaken from their deep sleep," according to a posting on a jihadist Web site

JARAMI, Iraq, May 10 -- Screaming "Allahu Akbar'' to the end, the foreign fighters lay on their backs in a narrow crawl space under a house and blasted their machine guns up through the concrete floor with bullets designed to penetrate tanks. They fired at U.S. Marines, driving back wave after wave as the Americans tried to retrieve a fallen comrade. [...] The Marines got their fallen man, suffering one more dead and at least five wounded in the process. And according to survivors of the battle, the foreign fighters near the Syrian border proved to be everything their reputation...

In a stunning admission, the Washington Post said Sunday that President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq deserves at least some of the credit for the fact that terrorists have not been able to launch another 9/11-style strike against America. "A broad cross section of counterterrorism officials believes al Qaeda and like-minded groups, in part frustrated by increased U.S. security measures, are focusing instead on Americans deployed in Iraq," the paper said, "where the groups operate with relative impunity." Bush administration officials have long argued that taking the war to the terrorists' doorstep was the best way of...

“The sense is that many of the suicide bombers are in fact foreign jihadists, not Iraqis, for the most part,” the official said, speaking to reporters on background. “The ones that we’ve gotten our hands on are certainly foreigners,” he pointed out. Foreign insurgents operating in Iraq seem to be coming from about 25 countries, the official noted. The majority, he observed, are from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, U.S. military analysts in Iraq “don’t see that foreign fighters have become a significant force in the insurgency,” the official noted. Out of about 10,000 detainees now being held in...

Pakistanis held in Iraq with explosives BAGHDAD, March 26: Iraqi forces said on Saturday that they had arrested 120 suspects, including foreign Arabs, Pakistanis and Afghans, on suspicion of planning attacks against the country's Shia community. A source at the defence ministry said the suspects were arrested during a raid in Jurf al-Sakhr, about 60km south of Baghdad. "We found explosive devices and materials, booby-trapped cars and compact discs showing beheadings," said the source, who did not wish to be identified. He said preliminary interrogation of the suspects had revealed that they had a list of clerics targeted for assassination...

BAGHDAD, Feb 20 (KUNA) -- An Iranian national was arrested in Iraq on charges of smuggling foreign fighters and weapons into Iraq, the interim government said Sunday. Jaafar Sadeq Fetteh, also charged with sending Iraqis abroad to receive military training, was arrested near Balad Rose governorate last Thursday, the government said in a statement. It added the 45-year-old Fetteh was the leader of a "big terrorist cell" consisting of 100 persons. The cell members work on smuggling foreign fighters and weapons inside Iraq, as well as sending Iraqis outside the country to receive training to carry out "terrorist attacks" against...

BAGHDAD — "Please, please," the young Saudi appeals in a whisper, "don't turn me over to the Americans." His face is charred and blistered. His head and arms are enveloped in gauze. Each word seems to beget pain. His haunted eyes dart about, his only noticeable movements. He is here to repent, under the stern guidance of an Iraqi intelligence agent. The setting is an anonymous office in the heavily barricaded Iraqi Interior Ministry. So what does he think now of "Sheik" Osama bin Laden, the interrogator asks? "He kills Muslims," the Saudi murmurs, his lips barely moving. And Abu...