U.S. spotlights Al Qaeda in Iraq weakness
The US military released four pages of a 39-page, typewritten Arabic document believed to be from a top Al Qaeda in Iraq leader.
from the February 11, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
The document speaks of "disillusioned" foreign fighters stuck in the vast Anbar Province desert with diminished funds – unable to carry out attacks or suicide bombings because of US-supported and largely tribal groups of anti-Al Qaeda fighters known as Sahwa (Awakening).
The Samarra document recommends relocating the foreign fighters to other provinces, according to Smith. Earlier this year, the US military posted on the Internet extensive documents found last fall in the northwestern Iraqi town of Sinjar, detailing AQI's recruitment and transport of foreign fighters.
A second document released Sunday by Smith was described as a "diary" that belonged to an Al Qaeda "sector leader" in the villages of Mashahda and Layin captured during a Nov. 3 raid last year.
But Abu Tariq says this is his will, according to segments of the handwritten 16-page document posted online by the military.
The most striking revelation in the document is that it provides further evidence that many of the current members of the mostly Sunni US-backed anti-Al Qaeda militias, known as Sahwa and Concerned Local Citizens (CLCs), were in fact Al Qaeda foot soldiers previously.
In the document, Abu Tariq, who remains at large, laments the death and capture of the commanders of his five battalions and the defection of scores of his soldiers to the CLCs.
"The Al Qaeda foot soldiers are there working for the Sahwa now. The big questions: Where are their loyalties and what will happen tomorrow?" says Joost Hiltermann, an Istanbul-based analyst with the International Crisis Group.
Mr. Hiltermann says he's puzzled by the decision to release the documents, as well as a video of training child soldiers, now when Al Qaeda has been already weakened and after Iraqis have witnessed its brutality firsthand in the massive bombings it perpetrated particularly against Shiites since the start of the war.
"Child soldiers we find worldwide, why should Al Qaeda be any different and the use of women [suicide bombers] is old and not new," he says.
RSS feed
