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U.S. CAN'T IDENTIFY FOREIGN FIGHTERS
 The United States has captured more than 1,300 insurgents in Faluja. But officials acknowledge that the U.S. military has been largely unable to identify the insurgents or determine their nationality. As a result, they said, military intelligence has been unsuccessful in determining the extent of the role of foreign fighters in the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, said the military believes that only several dozen of the more than 1,300 detainees in Faluja were foreigners. But he acknowledged that the military required help from Iraqi authorities to distinguish Iraqi detainees from foreigners. "It is very difficult to determine what a foreign fighter is," Smith said. "They do not carry ID cards or passports as they're in there doing this fighting. So it takes an Iraqi or another Arab to be able to tell by accent and stuff where they're from, where they might be from, and that is an ongoing process, as we go and interview the detainees." Posted by: Fred 2004-11-25 |
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