[Jihadica] Thomas Hegghammer - The latest issue of the slick jihadi magazine Sada al-Jihad contains the martyrdom biography of a Saudi fighter named Abu Muhammad al-Marri who was recently killed in Gaza. The novelty is not that foreign jihadists want to fight in Palestine - they always wanted to - but rather that al-Marri made it through and was allowed to fight by the Palestinians. There are three ways to interpret this report: 1) as a fluke - al-Marri had a Palestinian wife so he may not have been seen as an outsider; 2) as reflecting a decision by Hamas to allow in a Saudi or two to embarrass the Saudis, or 3) as reflecting a strategic decision by Hamas to accommodate more foreign volunteers. Only time will show which one it is.
2009-01-30 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive