Egyptian security sources said Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaida have hired Muslim clerics to help recruit people to fight the U.S. military in Iraq. The sources said the clerics received money to find recruits and fly them to Syria.
The recruitment of Egyptians was said to have taken place in the coastal city of Suez and Ismailiya. A group termed "Call and Holy War," or Da'awa and Jihad, was formed to carry out the operation.
At this point, the sources said, Egyptian authorities have not linked Da'awa with the Al Qaida network in Iraq. That network has been led by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, who has recruited fighters from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
An attorney for the defendants denied the Egyptian charges. Attorney Mamdouh Ismail termed Shawki a cleric who has cleared his sermons by the state-supported Al Azhar Islamic academy.
Security sources said the defendants were captured in April 2005. They said this was the second group that was found to have been recruiting Egyptians for the war in Iraq.
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