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Militants who left Iraq during the war return; plan attacks: Bremer
New York, Aug 10: Hundreds of militants, who fled Iraq during the war, have returned and are planning major terrorist attacks, information received by the American-led administration in Baghdad has revealed.
New York, Aug 10: Hundreds of militants, who fled Iraq during the war, have returned and are planning major terrorist attacks, information received by the American-led
administration in Baghdad has revealed.
The top civilian administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer III, said that fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organisation that the united states tried to destroy during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border into Iraq.
Hundreds of the militants are now in Iraq, where they were preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration, he was quoted by the 'New York Times' as saying.
"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here. So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this," he said. The Bush administration, the paper said, has asserted that Ansar has ties to al Qaeda. Officials of the occupying authority, including Bremer, said it was possible that al Qaeda is in Iraq, but they said there is no conclusive proof of that.
Bremer spoke with the times a day after a car bomb attack ripped through the Jordanian Embassy in central Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding scores more. It was the deadliest attack against civilians since the American military took control of Baghdad, and it represented a new type of security problem for the American-led occupation. "We have seen here a new technique for Iraq that we have never seen before," Bremer said, referring to the car bomb used in the attack.
Bureau Report
Hundreds of the militants are now in Iraq, where they were preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration, he was quoted by the 'New York Times' as saying.
"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here. So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this," he said. The Bush administration, the paper said, has asserted that Ansar has ties to al Qaeda. Officials of the occupying authority, including Bremer, said it was possible that al Qaeda is in Iraq, but they said there is no conclusive proof of that.
Bremer spoke with the times a day after a car bomb attack ripped through the Jordanian Embassy in central Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding scores more. It was the deadliest attack against civilians since the American military took control of Baghdad, and it represented a new type of security problem for the American-led occupation. "We have seen here a new technique for Iraq that we have never seen before," Bremer said, referring to the car bomb used in the attack.
Bureau Report