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US tries to discern foreign fighters' role in Iraq
Jordan Times, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Even as President George W. Bush cites a threat posed by foreign Islamic fighters in Iraq, the Pentagon is struggling to figure out what role they may be playing and the number of fighters that could be involved. Asked on Tuesday who was suspected in the recent upsurge in violence in Iraq, Bush pointed to "foreign terrorists" who he said had infiltrated Iraq, and forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein, ousted in April by a US-led invasion.
They "are trying to create conditions of fear and retreat because they fear a free and peaceful state in the midst of a part of the world where terror has found recruits," Bush said during a news conference.
A vexing puzzle for US officials has been figuring out who is staging the resistance in Iraq that has caused a mounting death toll for American troops. Analysts said the presence of a big number of foreign fighters in Iraq could better fit Bush's contention that Iraq has become "the central front" in the global "war on terrorism."
"In some ways, it would assist the US if foreign fighters were to be seen in large numbers in Iraq because it would almost justify the charge that this is part of the war on terrorism," said Mark Burgess, who heads the Terrorism Project at the Centre for Defence Information.
The bigger danger for the United States, Burgess said, would be if foreign fighters are an insignificant factor and the resistance is more of a home-grown insurgency against an occupation force staged by Iraqis motivated by nationalism. A defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US military contended that there are 1,000 to 3,000 foreign fighters now operating inside Iraq.
"It's a working number. There's no consensus on the numbers," the official said, noting the figure was based in part on interrogations of people detained in Iraq familiar with the flow of Islamic fighters across Iraq's borders with Syria and Iran.
Another US official said American authorities know that there are some foreign fighters operating in Iraq because occasionally they are killed or captured. But the official added, "It is unclear how many of them there are," and to what extent they are behind the latest surge in violence.
Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said 95 per cent of guerrillas are Saddam loyalists, with only "a very, very small percentage of foreign fighters — 2, 3, 4, 5 per cent."
"We have not seen a large influx of foreign fighters thus far," Odierno said on Monday, adding that "we have not seen any direct coordination" between Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters. But Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, 1st Armoured Division assistant commander, said Monday's coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad that killed 42 people and wounded hundreds "have a mode of operation of foreign fighters," noting that a suspect captured in the attacks carried a Syrian passport.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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