<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Al Qaida bailing: Out of Iraq, into Africa
Al Qaida bailing: Out of Iraq, into Africa

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

BAGHDAD — The Al Qaida network in Iraq, battered in the U.S.-led coalition offensive, has been sending scores of operatives to Africa.

Iraqi security sources said the Al Qaida network in Iraq has ordered hundreds of foreign operatives to leave the country. The sources said scores of Al Qaida fighters left Iraq for northern and eastern Africa during 2008.

"Many of them have escaped through the borders with Syria and Iran to hotter zones such as Somalia and Sudan," Iraqi Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said.

[On Tuesday, 35 police recruits were killed in a double suicide bombing east of the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba. Security sources said the military base where 200 people had been recruited to the police did not contain security.]

Kamal, director of investigations at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said the exodus was sparked by the U.S.-led surge against Al Qaida in 2007. He said cells of the so-called Al Qaida Organization in Mesopotamia were being dismantled amid the flight of operatives.

"Our intelligence information indicates the withdrawal of certain groups of Al Qaida from Iraq because of the military strikes," Kamal said in a briefing to the Abu Dhabi-based Gulf News. "I believe this is the beginning of the complete withdrawal of Al Qaida from Iraqi territory."

The security sources said Al Qaida operatives in Iraq were also trying to reach North Africa, particularly Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. They said Iraqi and U.S. raids of Al Qaida strongholds in Iraq yielded plans to resettle in several countries in Africa.

"Al Qaida has sought to replenish the dismantled cells with volunteers from North Africa," a security source said. "But not enough people have arrived."

Al Qaida operations in Iraq were said to have declined significantly during 2008. The network was said to remain active in such provinces as Diyala and Nineveh while sustaining major damage in Anbar and Baghdad.

Still, officials assess that Al Qaida would maintain an operational presence in Iraq. They said Al Qaida regards the war against the U.S. military in Iraq as a major tool in recruitment and fund-raising. Iraq and the United States plan a major operation in Diyala to capture Al Qaida's leadership.

"This [Al Qaida withdrawal from Iraq] will take years," Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, a former police commander in Basra, said.

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