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Limited foreign hand in Iraq
resistance
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With the downing of a US Chinook
helicopter in Iraq on Sunday claiming the lives of at
least 16 soldiers, and Iran handing over to the United
Nations a list with the names of scores of foreign
jihadis in its custody, there is renewed focus on the
nature of the resistance movement in Iraq.
The
attack on the helicopter - the second-deadliest for the
US since its March invasion - was launched just south of
Falluja, a center of heightened Sunni resistance to the
US-led occupation of Iraq. The deadliest day for
American troops in Iraq was March 23 when 28 died in
numerous attacks as US forces advanced toward Baghdad.
Iran, meanwhile, last week finally revealed to
the UN Security Council the names of suspected al-Qaeda
members in its custody - many believed to have been
caught while trying to make their way to join the
resistance in Iraq. The official IRNA news agency said
that a report to the council identified 78 suspected
members of the militant network who Iran says have
already been extradited to their countries of origin.
The Iranian mission in New York also provided
the names of 147 suspected members of al-Qaeda - or its
former Afghan hosts, the Taliban - who remain in custody
in Iran pending trial, extradition or deportation, the
news agency said.
IRNA's dispatch did not reveal
the names of the detainees or any other details.
However, on Sunday the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published
the names of some of the 147 suspects. The Saudi-owned
newspaper did not say how it had obtained the list, but
the article was datelined New York.
The names
included 29 Saudis, 12 Jordanians, 13 Yemenis, six
Moroccans, six Tunisians, one Syrian, seven Somalis, 35
Pakistanis and 24 others whose nationalities could not
be established. Three Afghans and three Lebanese were
also identified.
Iranian officials have also
acknowledged that they have detained a number of top
figures from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, but have
refused to give any hints as to their identities,
despite repeated calls from the US to hand them over.
The Washington Post reported October 14 that the
eldest son of bin Laden, Saad, had risen to the top
ranks of al-Qaeda and was helping run the terror network
from inside Iran. The paper, which quoted US, European
and Arab officials, said that Saad was being protected
by an elite unit linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards,
the Islamic republic's ideological army. Iran dismissed
the allegation as an "absolute lie".
As
resistance in Iraq intensifies, more than 30 attacks are
recorded every day, there has been much speculation on
the role of foreign jihadis. The New York Times reported
on October 28, "Bush administration officials have
estimated that the number of foreign fighters in Iraq is
between 1,000 and 3,000, but civilian and military
officials here [in Baghdad] say they doubt there are
anywhere near that number." A more realistic number is
probably about 250.
European intelligence
sources have confirmed to Asia Times Online that well
before and during the US invasion on Iraq, Arabs,
Afghans, Pakistanis and other nationals had tried to
reach Iraq, but that most were netted in Iran and thrown
into custody.
US President George W Bush has
repeatedly blamed the surge in guerrilla attacks as a
"desperate" reaction to the successes achieved by the US
and other coalition forces in their first months of
rebuilding Iraq. Yet the guerrillas appear to be
stepping up their attacks - being called by some the
"Ramadan Offensive" because of the four apparently
coordinated suicide bombings in Baghdad that killed at
least 36 people last Monday, the first day of the Muslim
holy month.
Yet US authorities still tend to
place the blame on al-Qaeda operators or the Ansar
al-Islam, a northern terrorist network. This has been to
play down the indigenous resistance movement in Iraq.
This correspondent visited northern Iraq in July
and August this year, and investigations suggest that
most of the foreign fighters who made it to Iraq did so
via Jordan and Syria. This was a result of the financial
support that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein used
to give to Syrian-based Palestinian groups. Many of the
foreign fighters arrived in the country ahead of the US
invasion troops, and lay low until the guerrilla phase
of the war began. Most were identified with the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Al-Qaeda fighters, on
the other hand, could enter Iraq via bordering Saudi
Arabia or Iran. The Saudi route, though, involves an
inhospitable desert crossing, and evading vigilant Saudi
officials. A more natural route for al-Qaeda fighters,
many of whom had fled Afghanistan for the sanctuary of
Pakistan border areas or Central Asian states, was via
northern Iran. However, the Iranian border areas are
well monitored by the intelligence networks of the
Kurdish security forces, and crossing is difficult - as
evidenced by the numbers caught.
Thus, to date,
and unlike Afghanistan, global jihadis have been unable
to establish settled and safe travel routes into Iraq,
and within the country foreign fighters, again unlike
Afghanistan, appear not to have established defined
pockets of resistance.
According to a report by
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, retired US Army Colonel
Kenneth Allard, who served in Europe in military
intelligence, says that the various leaders of the Iraqi
guerrilla forces might be relegating the use of
explosives and other crude weapons to the foreign
fighters. He says that the Iraqi commanders might prefer
to give the foreign fighters the responsibility for
conducting suicide bombings because they came to Iraq
perhaps for religious and ideological reasons.
"This is probably an effective division of
labor," Allard said. "I mean, the Iraqis show every sign
of wanting to go on and live another day." He said that
he believes the foreign fighters are "only too glad" to
be used as suicide attackers on the behalf of the
Ba'athists.
Intelligence sources tell Asia Times
Online that Iraq's northern Kurdish region could see an
escalation of guerrilla activity soon, instigated by the
Ansar al-Islam. They say that many Ansar al-Islam
members are lying low in the Iranian Kurdish region,
have set up safe routes for crossing the border, and are
waiting for the right moment to move on the towns of
Kirkuk and Mosul to join the resistance.
Despite
this though, it is clear that the resistance movement
draws it strength from the grassroots, especially tribal
areas such as Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya, from where
the main human resources come, funded by the treasury of
the former regime, and armed by its extensive arsenal.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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