France's anti-terrorist police on Friday identified a young Frenchman killed fighting the United States in Iraq, the first confirmed case of what is believed to be a growing stream of Muslims heading from Europe to fight what they regard as a new holy war. Redouane el-Hakim, 19, the son of Tunisian immigrants, died during an American bombardment of insurgents in Fallujah on July 17, according to an intelligence official close to the case. Intelligence officials fear that for a new generation of disaffected European Muslims, Iraq could become what Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya were for European Islamic militants in past decades: a galvanizing cause that sends idealistic young men abroad, trains them and puts them in touch with a more radical global network of terrorists. In the past, many young Europeans who fought in those wars came back to Europe to plot terrorist attacks at home."We consider these people dangerous because those who go will come back once their mission is accomplished," the intelligence official said. "Then they can use the knowledge gained there in France, Europe or the United States. It's the same as those who went to Afghanistan or Chechnya." Hundreds of young militant Muslim men have left Europe to fight in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials in four European countries. They have been recruited through mosques, Muslim centers and militant Web sites by several groups, including Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish terrorist group once based in northern Iraq. French officials stress that there is not yet evidence of a broad French network funneling fighters to Iraq, and terrorism experts say the vast majority of foreign fighters there come from other countries in the region. But experience with returning fighters from other Muslim holy wars is causing anxiety in Europe. Virtually all of the major terrorists arrested in Europe in the past three years spent time in Bosnia, Afghanistan or Chechnya. Two years ago, French anti-terrorism police broke up a cell of Chechen-trained militants who they believe were plotting a chemical attack in Paris. Those arrests triggered an investigation that is still active into what French counterterrorism officials call "the Chechen network."
"Now, the new land of jihad is Iraq," the intelligence official said. "There, they're trained, they fight and acquire a technique and the indoctrination sufficient to act on when they return." A network of recruiters for Iraq first appeared in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Norway within months of the U.S.-led invasion, officials said. Some officials said that the recruitment effort has spread to other countries in Europe, including Belgium and Switzerland. The network provides forged documents, financing, training and information about infiltration routes into the country. The movement to Iraq has increased in recent months, officials say, but they decline to provide specifics. One senior European intelligence official said that there is evidence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant believed to be operating in Fallujah, has established a sophisticated network that has helped recruit nearly 1,000 young men from the Middle East and Europe. "These young men know where the action is. They easily cross the borders of Syria or Turkey, and they go directly to Fallujah," the official said.