[Reuters/Sydney Morning Herald-Australia] Al-Qaeda is exerting an "almost satanic terror" among Shi'ite groups whose militias have greatly escalated violence in Iraq, the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden, says. The top U.S. general in the Middle East, John Abizaid, said bin Laden's network was reinvigorating its operations from havens on the Afghan-Pakistani border, and had replaced leaders killed or captured by the U.S. and its allies with new seasoned militants. Intelligence officials said that despite the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, the group remained a leading actor in that country's sectarian violence, which was likely only to increase. Hayden said Washington only partly understood links between regional militant groups and al-Qaeda and was just beginning to dissect al-Qaeda's effect on so-called home-grown cells inspired by its rhetoric. An al-Qaeda victory in Iraq "would mean a fundamentalist state that shelters jihadists and serves as a launching pad for terrorist operations throughout the region - and in the United States," Hayden warned.
2006-11-16 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive