(Telegraph-UK) - Muslim fundamentalists from throughout the Middle East are being drawn to Iraq for a protracted guerrilla war, senior military officials said Monday after a wave of weekend sabotage attacks. "Far from a new Vietnam, we appear to be heading for a new Afghanistan, Somalia, or Chechnya as the next battleground between Islam and the infidels," said one official in Washington. Resistance fighters speak of operating in cells of five or six members, of being recruited at religious gatherings, and of lying low until they receive a call to act. Their aim: to create a new Islamic state. Of particular concern to America is the attraction of Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia, which is gaining a foothold in Iraq. Wahhabi mosques, funded by Saudi wealth, are becoming centers of opposition to America. In June, U.S. special forces arrested 15 Saudi Wahhabis and captured a huge supply of weapons and ammunition.
2003-08-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive