U.S. Links Jordan Militant to Iraq Blasts

The United States has evidence that a Jordanian-born militant was behind this week's devastating suicide bombings in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Wednesday.

The statement by Gen. John Abizaid is the most direct assertion yet by a U.S. official that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is carrying through on a terrorist campaign inside Iraq, as described in a letter purportedly written by al-Zarqawi and intercepted recently by U.S. intelligence.

The letter outlined plans to attack Shiite religious sites to foment a civil war. The Bush administration says al-Zarqawi has links to Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States.

Abizaid's comments reflect a growing conviction among senior American officials that while remnants of Saddam Hussein's former Baathist government remain a serious security threat, the most lethal enemy in Iraq is now a shadowy web of foreign terrorists and Islamic extremists.

The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said in Baghdad that it is "increasingly apparent that a large part" of the recent violence aimed at Iraqis "comes from outside the country."

Abizaid, who made his statement in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, also said terrorists have "gotten themselves established" in Iraq, and that al-Zarqawi in particular has made new links with unidentified members of the former Iraqi intelligence services. Al-Zarqawi is believed to be operating inside Iraq.

Abizaid's comments went beyond previous statements by U.S. officials about al-Zarqawi's suspected involvement in the nearly simultaneous bombings Tuesday in Baghdad and Karbala.

"The level of organization and the desire to cause casualties among innocent worshippers is a clear hallmark of the Zarqawi network and we have intelligence that ties Zarqawi to this attack," Abizaid said.

Asked later to explain the evidence of an al-Zarqawi connection, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad, told reporters he could not elaborate.

"We are developing that body of evidence right now," he said, adding later, "We have solid evidence linking (al-Zarqawi) to previous attacks in this country."

Since midsummer, U.S. officials have struggled to understand who is behind the violence that initially was aimed mainly at American troops but recently has been directed more at Iraqi civilians.

U.S. and allied forces have chipped away at the leadership and financial underpinnings of the anti-occupation insurgency, which the military calls "former regime elements." They have made much faster progress on that front since Saddam's capture on Dec. 13.

But as that threat has weakened, other dangers have grown, chiefly from terrorist groups whose shape, scope and origins have been difficult for the Americans to define.

On a trip to Iraq last month, Abizaid quizzed numerous U.S. commanders about the nature of the threat in Baghdad and the highly volatile area west and north of the capital. He expressed his oft-stated view that public reports of large numbers of foreign terrorists entering Iraq are overstated.

But it also was made apparent to Abizaid that the U.S. military is not entirely sure what it is up against. Some commanders are worried most about what they call Islamic fundamentalists, whom they differentiate from terrorists, although both groups include foreigners.

On Wednesday, Abizaid said the United States has "intelligence that shows there is some linkage between Zarqawi and former regime elements, specifically the Iraqi intelligence service. And we are concerned to see a terrorist group come into close coordination with former Iraqi intelligence service people because that creates an opportunity for ... cooperation that can have a lot of danger for the (U.S.) force."

During Abizaid's trip last month to Iraq, one military official said the fundamentalists include followers of the Wahabbi sect of Islam, which is the main brand of the religion in Saudi Arabia, as well as mujahedeen forces, or Muslim guerrillas committed to a holy war against the West; and imams who preach anti-Western messages in Iraqi mosques.

As a separate category, the foreign terrorists are generally defined as including al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi Kurdish organization thought to be active in the dangerous area west and north of Baghdad.

1 posted on 03/03/2004 6:18:10 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach

It is getting almost hopeless to expect beaten-down Iraqis to stand up to well-fed and well-funded Wahhabis.

Jordanian Born is a nice way to avoid saying Palestinian, but as the vast majority of Jordan is Palestinian (excepting the Hashamite ruling class), the connection is obvious. All the Arabs in the Middle East hate the Palestinians for a reason, the blood of their familys.

3 posted on 03/03/2004 9:04:50 PM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)

You'd be surprised at how sturdy these Iraqis are proving to be. They have tasted freedom and they LOVE it. They won't be cowed so easily.

4 posted on 03/04/2004 2:12:52 PM PST by McGavin999 (Evil thrives when good men do nothing!)

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