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Zarqawi's a good boomer recruiter
Abu Musab Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, has been increasingly successful at recruiting foreign suicide bombers into the country, who are quickly assigned a bomb-ladened vehicle to kill coalition members and civilians, according to senior military officials. The officials also said a profitable market for kidnapped Westerners has emerged, adding to the violence in Iraq, as criminal gangs snatch hostages and then market them like a commodity to various Islamic jihadist groups.Despite months of fighting an insurgency that erupted last fall, military leaders said the number of attacks in September show an increase, compared with early August, but they do not have a good enough handle on the enemy to say whether it is weaker or stronger than a year ago. Zarqawi's murderous ways were underscored again last week when a suicide bomber parked a car in a busy Iraqi market and pushed the ignition switch. The massive explosion killed 47 Iraqis, the worst car bombing in Baghdad since March. "It's clear this is Zarqawi doing these types of things to the Iraqi people," said Rear Adm. Gregory Slavonic, a spokesman for the U.S. command in Iraq. "Zarqawi is doing the car bombings. I think he is getting more people to drive these cars who believe in his cause, and the more people you can get who believe in the cause that he has espoused to them, you can get the frequency up." Suicide bombers have another advantage. When they blow themselves up, they leave no potential of capturing a Zarqawi operative who could provide information on the terrorist's organization and its links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. "It's hard to interrogate drivers, because they're not usually around to talk," Adm. Slavonic said. Without many captives, U.S. officials have limited knowledge of Zarqawi's cells. He relies on foreign jihadists to heed his call to come to Iraq and enlist as suicide bombers. In some cases, he can place them in a car and give them a target within days of their arrival. The exact size of his organization is unknown, but is believed to number several hundred. A Pentagon official said that at one point this summer, commanders estimated there were about 2,000 anti-coalition operatives inside Iraq representing various terror networks or criminal enterprises. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-20 |
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