Afghanistan's "Pristine Jihad" Draws Fresh Foreign Recruits....

Good read......

......Brian Glyn Williams, who researches jihadist websites for the Combating Terrorism Centre at the US military academy at West Point, told The Times that jihadist websites across the Middle East had shown a huge increase in the number of epitaphs for foreign fighters killed in Afghanistan in recent months. They have also reflected the despair of many al-Qaeda followers at the reverses the group has suffered in Iraq since the Sunni Awakening, an alliance of US forces with previously anti-government Sunni militias that turned against al-Qaeda, particularly in the province of Anbar.

Dr Williams said: “The Anbar Awakening really broke the hearts of a lot of al-Qaeda followers who saw the jihad in Iraq in black-and-white terms. Sunni Arab al-Qaeda were pushed out by fellow Sunni Arabs.

“Iraq is seen as a defeat. The image of Afghanistan is seen as a more pristine jihad.”

The Times has learnt from several insurgency sources that Abu Yusuf Saleh al-Yemeni, an emissary for al-Qaeda, met the leadership of Hizb-e-Islami, the Afghan insurgent group, in Nuristan province on the eastern border in autumn 2007. The two sides agreed to work together. Al-Yemeni now leads a band of al-Qaeda fighters alongside Hizb-e-Islami fighters, as well as Taleban and Pakistani militants from bases in Nuristan.

Hekmatullah Sial, a political analyst based in eastern Afghanistan, told The Times: “The local people in the eastern part of Nuristan say that more than 400 fighters, both local and foreign, are moving freely in the area. There are reports that Chechens, Arabs and Pakistanis are among them.

Some of the Arabs arriving in Afghanistan are, in the words of one Western diplomat, “Saudi kids on their gap years”. Others, such as Uzbek members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has been fighting for more than a decade alongside al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are hardened fighters.

Rest here>>>>

ZIP

Comments

[Poopyhead]

I just hope that they are wiped out as they are found. No more Gitmo-just wipe them out.

[Bob]

No point taking prisoners anymore, is there?

Think Obama Justice Department.

"“Iraq is seen as a defeat."

Someone should inform Pelosi, Murtha, Reid, et al..