LONDON, Oct. 31 — Across Europe and the Middle East, young militant Muslim men are answering a call issued by Osama bin Laden and other extremists, and leaving home to join the fight against the American-led occupation in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials based in six countries.
The intelligence officials say that since late summer they have detected a growing stream of itinerant Muslim militants headed for Iraq. They estimate that hundreds of young men from an array of countries have now arrived in Iraq by crossing the Syrian or Iranian borders.
A senior British official, who was in Iraq in September, said most of the foreign men captured there were from the Middle East — Syria, Lebanon and Yemen — or North Africa. He described them as “young, angry men” motivated by the “anti-British, anti-American rhetoric that fills their ears every day.”
The rising agitation in parts of the Muslim world over the American-led occupation in Iraq was clear at Friday Prayers at Al Nur Mosque in a working-class section of Berlin. Dr. Izzeldin Hamad, the director of the Saudi-financed mosque, said political discussion was banned there.
But outside, a 21-year-old man who identified himself as Akmed said that while Saddam Hussein was unpopular, now “there are people who are angry about the American occupation.” He and others said that inside the mosque, collections usually requested for Muslims in Palestine and Chechnya were now being offered for Iraq as well.
An initial hint that Iraq would become a magnet for foreign recruits came just before the war began in March, with the arrest in Syria of four Algerian men, who had been living in Hamburg and attending a mosque frequented by three of the Sept. 11 hijackers. The authorities believed that the men intended to fight in Iraq.
Intelligence officials, who base their assessment of the traffic into Iraq on surveillance of mosques and Islamic centers and on interrogations of terrorist suspects captured inside Iraq, say they have found no connections between the recruits. “Nobody is organizing this move from Europe to Iraq,” a senior European counterterrorism official said. “At least it is difficult to analyze and know who is organizing this. This may be just the beginning of a new phenomenon.”
The number of attacks is also increasing. In the last week, the average number of attacks against allied or international relief targets exceeded two dozen a day, from 12 attacks daily in July.
This week’s attacks produced some evidence of the role of foreigners in Iraq. One would-be suicide bomber who was shot and wounded by Iraqi policemen was later identified as a man of Yemeni descent who was holding a Syrian passport.
But allied forces are still struggling to figure out the dimensions and composition of the opponent they now face in Iraq. “We are quite blind there,” said the head of an intelligence agency in Europe. He added: “The Americans and Brits know very little about this enemy. They are trying to fight an enemy they cannot see.”
As a result, allied forces assume that they are fighting a loose conglomerate of like-minded opponents. Counterterrorism officials estimated that as many as 15 militant groups, some with loose ties to Al Qaeda, might now be operating in Iraq.
People Queuing up to Attack US in Iraq
Apart from the obvioius which is America is targeted and going to be attacked for its occupation, this was inevitable that this was going to happen the corrupt rulers have shown there loyalty to thier American and British Paymasters by not lifting a finger! the people have no link with there corrupt governments and you can see the difference of ideas between corrupt regimes and the people on the ground who had enough of the humiliation!