http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/5894387.html

July 17, 2008

Al-Qaida recruits foreigners to fight war in Afghanistan

Terrorist group finds followers in several countries

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN -- Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al-Qaida is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terrorist groups.

More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by al-Qaida as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say.

Jihadist Web sites from Chechnya to Turkey to the Arab world featured recruitment ads as early as 2007 calling on the "Lions of Islam" to fight in Afghanistan, said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. Williams has tracked the movement of jihadis for the U.S. military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

Border concerns

Local Afghans in the border regions are increasingly concerned about the return of Arab fighters, Williams wrote in a Combating Terrorism Center paper. He said there were rumors of hardened Arab fighters from Iraq training Afghan Pashtuns in the previously taboo tactic of suicide bombing.

Turkey also appears to have emerged as a source of recruits. Williams estimated as many as 100 Turks had made their way to Pakistan to join the fight in Afghanistan.

"The story of Turkish involvement in transnational jihadism is one of the best kept stories of the war on terror," said Williams, who noted that al-Qaida videos posted on YouTube mention Turks engaging in the insurgency. "The local Afghans whom I talked to claim that the Turks and other foreigners are more prone to suicidal assaults than the local Taliban."

Dozens of Turkish Islamic militants have trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and taken part in attacks there, said Emin Demirel, an anti-terrorism expert in Turkey. He said images of attacks on mosques or Muslim villages provide propaganda for recruiting young Turkish Muslims.

Slow and steady

Al-Qaida's recruitment drive stems from a slow and steady resurgence that started in 2002, according to Taliban sources.

"They are awake," said Qari Mohammed Yusuf, who Afghan authorities confirm is a senior Taliban.

"They have people going by different names to other countries. They are coming and going easily."

Al-Qaida has financed the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, Yusuf said. In the chaos created by the Taliban groups, al-Qaida has been able to steadily recruit, re-establish its public relations wing, plot new attacks and re-establish areas of operation on both sides of the border.

While al-Qaida may be sending most of its trainees to Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is probably also creating cells with the mission of attacking Western countries, including the U.S., warned Erich Marquardt, senior editor with the Combating Terrorism Center.

"I think we have to accept the fact that al-Qaida has not taken its sights off the far enemy," Marquardt said.