Author: David Leppard
Publication: The Sunday Times
Date: June 4, 2006
URL: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2209957,00.html
UP TO 150 Islamic radicals have travelled
from Britain to Iraq to join up with a "British brigade" that has
been established by Al-Qaeda leaders to fight coalition forces.
Senior security sources say leaders of the
Iraqi insurgency have set up a "foreign legion" composed entirely
of westerners to fight alongside the insurgents in the war against British
and American forces. Some are preparing to carry out suicide attacks while
others have received basic combat training for attacks on western troops The
so-called "British brigade" is said to be operating under the direct
command of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Members of
the unit are thought to be in the Sunni triangle, a combat zone and Al-Qaeda
hotbed west of Baghdad.
The flow of young Muslim men from western
Europe to Iraq has increased dramatically in the past two years. The "pipeline"
of suspected terrorists is being fuelled by growing resentment about American
and British policy and scandals such as the mistreatment of inmates at the
Abu Ghraib prison.
A senior security source, confirming that
between 120 and 150 Britons had travelled to Iraq, said there was concern
that the flow was increasing: "The really worrying thing is that this
has become a movement that people believe in. It's not simply a matter of
them joining a terrorist organisation."
The latest demonstration of the trend came
10 days ago when anti-terrorist police arrested eight men in a series of raids
in Manchester, London and Merseyside.
Police said publicly that the men were being
held on suspicion of encouraging and financing Al-Qaeda's terrorist operations
abroad. But privately Whitehall officials said they believed that there may
have been links to the training and recruitment of volunteers for suicide
missions in Iraq.
Earlier this year Charles Clarke, the former
home secretary, imposed a control order on an unnamed terror suspect who had
been prevented from boarding a plane at Manchester airport.
Security sources say dozens of cases have
been unearthed in recent months where suspected would-be suicide bombers have
been stopped at British airports while they were en route to join the insurgency.
One said: "Greater Manchester police
frequently interdict individuals whom they believe are going to Iraq and other
locations in order to carry out suicide attacks. Conventional charges, such
as passport irregularities, are used to prevent them leaving the country.
But this leaves police with the problem of returning potential suicide bombers
to the Manchester community."
Zarqawi has boasted on his website about the
British recruits who have joined his "foreign legion". One Zarqawi
video, with English subtitles, issued last month, shows scenes of excited
young recruits in Iraq. The message is "They are fighting; you should
be too".
The International Institute for Strategic
Studies estimates that one in 10 of the 20,000 insurgents in Iraq was foreign-born.
However, Christopher Langton, editor of the
institute's study The Military Balance 2006, said he did not know how many
of the estimated 2,000 foreigners were British.
Last month Pierre de Bousquet de Florian,
head of the DST, the French domestic security service, said that about 15
young French people remained in and around Iraq. At least nine had been killed.
Muriel Degauque, 38, a white Belgian convert
to Islam, blew herself up in an attack on an Iraqi police patrol in the town
of Baquba, north of Baghdad, last November.
Wail al-Dhaleai, a Yemeni asylum seeker living
in Sheffield, died when he drove a car filled with explosives into a US army
patrol in November 2003.
The extent of the problem in this country
began to emerge only last year when Idris Bazis, 41, a French-Algerian who
lived in Manchester, blew himself up in a suicide attack on American troops.
An investigation by Greater Manchester police
soon uncovered an extensive network for would-be "holy warriors"
in Britain. A senior police source said that some went to Pakistan while others
went to Middle Eastern countries, such as Syria, before being smuggled over
the border.
The Ministry of Defence said it was aware
of the matter but could not discuss it because it was an "intelligence
issue".
"It is too complicated to go into estimating
numbers for this type of thing," it said.