Iraq: Tag-Team Terror By Amir Taheri
They are known as “Arab Afghans” and have been at the forefront of terrorist wars in more than a dozen countries for almost a quarter of century. They fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and in the 1990s waged merciless wars in Egypt and Algeria. They made their European debut in ex-Yugoslavia and are still active in Chechnya.
Since last spring, however, the “Arab Afghans” have found a new battlefield: Iraq. It is there that they mean to make their last stand against a world they regard as “satanic.”
The term “Arab Afghans” was coined in the 1980s to describe Arab “volunteers for martyrdom” who went to Afghanistan to fight the Red Army. Most came from well-to-do families, especially from the Gulf states, but others joined from Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and, later, the ex-Yugoslav republics. In the year 2000, most Western and Arab intelligence services estimated the number of “Arab Afghans” at around 20,000, mostly active in Algeria and Chechnya. The question now: How many have infiltrated Iraq?
Recommmended reading.
