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Report: European Intelligence Services Hunt for Ain el-Hilweh Fighters
[An Nahar] Intelligence services throughout the Middle East and Europe are scrambling to track down more than two dozen fighters linked to al-Qaeda who have recently left their base in the Paleostinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hellhole in southern Leb, Britain's The Guardian newspaper reported. The missing men are thought to have gone to Europe by a newly established route through Syria, Turkey and the Balkans, it said. Two Lebanese intelligence service officials told The Guardian that Leb was cooperating with European intelligence organizations to track down the bad boys, who are described as "extremely dangerous." One European Union intelligence official confirmed to The Observer that an operation to hunt down Arab fighters recently arrived from Leb was under way, but could not link this group to recent concerns about possible holiday attacks by al-Qaeda. "We have received warnings of a significant bad boy plot in Europe during the holidays and we have been warned about these missing fighters from Leb," he said. "But we wish we knew if the two threats were related." Stephen Tankel, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has done field research in Ein el-Hellhole and describes the band of snuffies as potentially dangerous because of their lack of overall control. "They may not have been super-organized, but that does not mean they are not potentially dangerous," he told The Guardian. "First, a number of them fought in Iraq, where they will have gained combat experience and, perhaps, some explosives expertise. Second, it's safe to assume that many of them are prepared to undertake 'martyrdom' operations," he said. Posted by: Fred 2010-12-27 |
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