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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.

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...

AMMAN, July 15 (Reuters) - Muslim militants are increasingly using Syria as a clandestine haven for fighters heading to Iraq, Jordanian officials said on Friday, adding that they had no proof the Damascus government condoned such activities. Security officials in U.S. ally Jordan said interrogations of 12 Jordanian militants arrested this year had revealed links with Syrian Islamists promoting jihad (holy war) in Iraq. "We are finding that many of these people are getting help from Syrian Islamist radicals who are helping them to undergo training and (get) financing and even equipment like explosives detonators they smuggle back to Jordan...

SULAYMANIYAH, Iraqi Kurdistan - "A series of suicide bombings in previously peaceful South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) has aroused suspicions that elements of the Iranian regime are backing efforts to destabilize the region." writes The Washington Times. "Before then, Tehran was keen to see the Kurds cooperate with the [Iraqi] Shi’ite parties," he said. "Now that the Shi’ites are on top, Iran is doing its best to weaken the Kurdish wing in parliament. Bomb attacks up here are an ideal distraction." said a Kurdish official. At least 85 persons have died and hundreds have been injured in three attacks over the...

Insurgents and their supporters have created a sophisticated network on the Internet to help them recruit suicide bombers to Iraq, according to interviews with terrorism experts and a review of the online material. - Snip - "The same way the Internet has revolutionized life in the United States, it's also revolutionized the business of terrorism," Kohlmann says. "The same way we've jumped on the Internet, they have, too."

Syrians are increasing assistance to foreign fighters preparing to enter Iraq and kill civilians and U.S. troops, despite months of pressure on Damascus from Washington to crack down on the jihadists. A U.S. official said recent intelligence shows that Syria is the home to Web sites that exhort militants to come to the country for preparation to fight and die in Iraq. Syrians also are providing barracks-like housing as the recruits from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco and other Muslim countries prepare for a jihad, or holy war. The fighters also receive weapons, training and money in Syria. The Syrian government...

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country. The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code. Fighting, which could be clearly heard at night over the weekend, first broke out in May...

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country. The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code. Fighting, which could be clearly heard at night over the weekend, first broke out in May...

Foreigners Blamed for Iraq Attacks Associated Press July 1, 2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi officials have long believed that foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq through its porous borders with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia are behind most suicide missions, and the recent wave of bloody strikes has confirmed that thinking. Authorities have found little evidence that Iraqis have been behind the near-daily stream of suicide attacks over the past six months, U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. The key role of foreign fighters in suicide attacks is one reason...

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...

Washington, 22 June (AKI) - A survey on casualties of foreign insurgents active in Iraq show that more than half of them are Saudi citizens, while the next most populous group is Syrian militants, at 13 percent, and Kuwaitis following with 5.3 percent. The data, compiled by a prominent US al-Qaeda and terror expert, Evan Kohlmann, is based on the known nationalities of 300 foreign insurgents killed fighting the US-led forces or in suicide attacks between June 2003-June 2005. While most of the foreign militants who died are from neighbouring Arab nations, a few are also from European countries. "We...

Official Offers Look at How Iraq's Insurgency Stages Deadly Suicide Attacks June 20, 2005 — As the number of suicide bombings in Iraq grows higher and higher, a top U.S. military intelligence official tells ABC News they are learning more about the true nature of the bombers. According to Brig. Gen. John Custer, director of intelligence for U.S. Central Command, suicide bombers are "recruited on the Internet. They hear about the terrible atrocities perpetrated against the Iraqis in Iraq. They want to go and martyr themselves." Officials say they know of only one suicide bomber who was Iraqi, with the...

Insurgents Pass Over Syrian Border Into Iraq Tal Afar, near Iraq's border with Syria, fell back into insurgent control after the 101st Airborne was withdrawn several months ago. After the battle here in September the military left behind fewer than 500 troops to patrol a region twice the size of Connecticut. With so few troops and the local police force in shambles, insurgents came back and turned Tal Afar, a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people, into a way station for the trafficking of arms and insurgent fighters from nearby Syria - and a ghost town of terrorized residents...

WASHINGTON - U.S. and Iraqi military forces in Iraq are capturing larger numbers of Saudis, Syrians and other foreign fighters, indicating that combatants from outside Iraq are playing a small but more prominent role in the increasingly violent insurgency, Army figures show. Senior military officials say the foreigners play a disproportionately important role in the resistance, particularly in carrying out suicide bombings, which have sharply increased in the past two months. The increase in captured foreign fighters underscores the shifting profile of insurgents taken into custody recently. About 85 percent of the 3,500 new detainees in U.S.-operated prisons in Iraq...

A SERIES of arrests in Spain, Germany, France and Holland has revealed a European terror network that recruits fighters and suicide bombers and sends them into Iraq.For two years recruiters have been providing fake documents, training and finance for the fighters, communicating secretly over the internet and liaising with cells based in Syria. Despite much closer links between intelligence and law enforcement agencies across Europe, experts say that the terrorists are moving between European countries to avoid detection. “The terrorists are operating internationally, even if the law enforcement agencies are a long way behind them,” said M J Gohel, chief...

Up to 20 percent of suicide car bombers in Iraq are from Algeria, a sign of growing cooperation between Islamic extremists in northern Africa and like-minded Iraqis, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday. The American officer said terror cells in the Middle East and northern Africa were increasingly joining forces as they face crackdowns in their own countries, leading to a stepped-up flow of money and Islamic extremists to Iraq. Forensic investigations have revealed that 20 percent of suicide car bombers in Iraq are Algerian and roughly 5 percent come from Morocco and Tunisia, according to the officer with...

More Foreigners Fight U.S. In Iraq Associated Press June 10, 2005 WASHINGTON - More foreign fighters than ever are crossing Iraq's porous borders to fight U.S. and Iraqi forces, and a growing number are from U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia, a Senate Democrat said Thursday. "The mix is changing," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., citing conversations last week in Iraq with Marine and Army generals. "Now, the mix is increasingly more Islamist crossing the border ... and a lot of them are Saudis. It presents a different profile" that is harder for U.S. forces to confront. Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's...

WASHINGTON - More foreign fighters than ever are crossing Iraq's porous borders to fight U.S. and Iraqi forces, and a growing number are from U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia, a Senate Democrat said Thursday. "The mix is changing," said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), D-Del., citing conversations last week in Iraq with Marine and Army generals. "Now, the mix is increasingly more Islamist crossing the border ... and a lot of them are Saudis. It presents a different profile" that is harder for U.S. forces to confront. Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat, gave no specific numbers, for...

June 7, 2005 -- ACCORDING to the SITE Institute, a respected counter-terrorism organization, only 9 percent of suicide bombings sponsored in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are conducted by native Iraqis. Analyzing data from a "martyrs" list posted on a Zarqawi Web site, SITE found that 42 percent of the killers hailed from Saudi Arabia, 12 percent from Syria, 11 percent from Kuwait, with the rest from an assortment of Asian and European nations.