Baghdad braced for further violence
Warnings of a day of “resistance” action have raised tensions in Baghdad, six months after President Bush declared major hostilities over.
Calls to Jihad are said to lure hundreds of militants into Iraq
Across Europe and the Middle East, young militant Muslim men are answering a call issued by Osama bin Laden and other extremists, and leaving home to join the fight against the American-led occupation in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials based in six countries.
The intelligence officials say that since late summer they have detected a growing stream of itinerant Muslim militants headed for Iraq. They estimate that hundreds of young men from an array of countries have now arrived in Iraq by crossing the Syrian or Iranian borders.
Among those already in Iraq are almost certainly veterans from the Afghanistan war, those moujahadim originally trained and armed by the US to fight the Russians (No, my enemies enemy is NOT always my friend!). Many of them fought for ten years there and thus have more combat experience than virtually anyone in the US military. Even people who detest them say they are battled-hardened veterans with serious skills.