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| Iraq |
| Papers Paint New Portrait of Iraq's Foreign Insurgents |
| 2008-01-21 |
| Muhammad Ayn-al-Nas, a 26-year-old Moroccan, started his journey in Casablanca. After flying to Turkey and then to Damascus, he reached his destination in a small Iraqi border town on Jan. 31, 2007. He was an economics student back home, he told the al-Qaeda clerk who interviewed him on arrival. Asked what sort of work he hoped to do in Iraq, Nas replied: "Martyr." Algerian Watsef Mussab, 29, who arrived in Iraq via Saudi Arabia and Syria, said he had come for combat. He complained that the Syrian smugglers who brought him to the border took his money, but he contributed what he had left to the insurgent cause — a watch, a ring and an MP3 player. Hanni al-Sagheer, a computer technician from Yemen and aspiring suicide volunteer, gave the clerk his home telephone number and also that of his brother. Their stories are among the individual records of 606 foreign fighters who entered Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007. The cache of documents was discovered last fall by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. Some include pictures — bearded men in a turban or kaffiyeh, some smiling and some scowling — in addition to names and aliases, home countries, birthdays and dates of entry into Iraq. Many list their occupations at home, whether plumber, laborer, policeman, lawyer, soldier or teacher. There is a "massage specialist," a "weapons merchant," a few "unemployed" and many students. The youngest was 16 when he crossed into Iraq; the oldest was 54. Most expressed interest in a suicide mission. The records are "one of the deepest reservoirs of information we've ever obtained of the network going into Iraq," according to a U.S. official closely familiar with intelligence on the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #3 Totalitarians do like to keep complete records. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-01-21 17:30 |
| #2 One guy donated an MP-3 player. Now that's committment. The part about AQ having an HR department to match capabilities was a bit of a reach. I'm sure it goes somehting like this: North African plumber = suicide bomber snuffy North African geo physicist = suicide bomber snuffy Yemeni unemployed = section leader |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2008-01-21 15:51 |
| #1 It boggles the imagination as to how many of these birds managed to cross the border from Syria then walked right into a lethal trap in Anbar. No need to keep count. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-01-21 15:19 |