By Michel Moutot
Agence France-Presse, 18 June 2007
Iraq has overtaken Afghanistan as an ideal training ground for Jihadists to export their battle across and beyond the Middle East, experts say.
The new generation of Islamist militants in Iraq are more battle-hardened than their veteran anti-Soviet counterparts from Afghanistan, and the export of their Muslim "holy war" to calmer Arab countries has become a phenomenon.
The presence of Saudi, Jordanian and Yemeni volunteers in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon, as well as arrests in Jordan and Saudi Arabia of Jihadists coming from Iraq illustrate this.
"The Iraqi resistance doesn't need people inside, they have more than they need, freeing up foreign fighters to fight elsewhere," said Marwan Shehadeh, an expert in radical movements with the Vision Research Institute in Amman.
"They are in contact with each other because Salafi (strict Muslim) ideology is spread all over Arab and Islamic countries," he said.
"They're ready to work, they're well trained and ready to start a global war against their enemies, not only the United States and Israel but also Western-backed Arab regimes."
A Western diplomat said he could not see how the spread of Jihadist ideology could be contained.
"Jihadists (spreading their ideology) are already in the region. Things are well advanced. It's a huge fear of Jordan," said the diplomat posted in Amman, requesting anonymity.
Last year, a Jordanian military tribunal condemned to death three Syrians and an Iraqi over a rocket attack on US warships in August 2005 that killed a Jordanian soldier.
Three other Iraqis, a Syrian and a Saudi-born Jordanian were also handed prison terms for their role in the attack on American ships moored in the Red Sea port of Aqaba. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.
In November 2005, Iraqi suicide bombers targeted three luxury hotels in Amman, killing 60 people, including foreigners. The attack was also claimed by Al-Qaeda.
In April this year, Jordan sentenced an Iraqi and a Libyan to life imprisonment over an abortive bomb plot against Amman airport in June 2006 on behalf of Al-Qaeda.
"The road to Baghdad was a one-way road, it has become a two-way highway," said Mohammed al-Masri, a researcher at Amman's Centre for Strategic Studies.
"There are still people going inside to join the fight but now there are people going out. Iraq is exporting terrorists," he said.
The intensity of fighting, the stockpiles of arms and explosives, the sophistication of car bombs used by insurgents all make Iraq an outstanding training ground, experts said.
In a report released in April by the US government, Dennis Pluchinsky, a former intelligence expert in the State Department, said Iraq veterans were the most dangerous because they were better trained than their Afghanistan counterparts.
"There are some operation parallels between the urban terrorist activity in Iraq and the urban environments in Europe and the United States," Pluchinsky wrote.
"More relevant terrorist skills are transferrable from Iraq to Europe than from Afghanistan to Europe."
In the Al-Qaeda camps of Afghanistan, volunteers almost never see real fighting, according to those who have passed through.
In Iraq, if he survives, a Jihadist will have acquired unbeatable experience having been pitted against the world's best army.
"If Afghanistan was a Pandora's box which when opened created problems in many countries, Iraq is a much bigger box, and what's inside much more dangerous," said Masri.
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Citation: Michel Moutot. "Iraq becomes prime training ground for export of Jihadists," Agence France-Presse, 18 June 2007.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/iraqunrestarab&printer=1;_ylt=AsTDH0S2Kf36NFXsMysKjk6bOrgF
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