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Al Qaeda has expanded the battlefield: The Pioneer
New Delhi, Nov 29: The war against Iraq was waged with the intention of wiping out terror. The Taliban regime was toppled in Afghanistan for this very purpose.
New Delhi, Nov 29: The war against Iraq was waged with the intention of wiping out terror. The Taliban regime was toppled in Afghanistan for this very purpose. But recent terror in West Asia suggests that toppling of the Saddam regime has further strengthened the Al Qaeda, which has expanded its battlefield. "The war against Iraq does not appear to have significantly weakened the Al Qaeda," says a top counter-terrorism expert. He says the group has become more militant since the Taliban regime's ouster.
There really is no central front in the war on terror; instead, there is a country-by-country local dynamic to each subgroup of the Al Qaeda. Despite the war against terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Al Qaeda and its allies have been successful in accelerating their attacks outside the US. With targets within the US much harder to get since the 9/11 attacks two years ago, terrorists are increasingly attacking soft targets in moderate Muslim countries which are aligned with the US and the UK.
The Al Qaeda's latest target is Turkey. Truck bombs killed at least 26 people and wounded nearly 450 in attacks on the British Consulate and London-based HSBC bank in Istanbul last week. The worst terror bombing in Turkey's history coincided with US President George Bush's trip to Britain. The blasts, which occurred five minutes apart, killed, among others, British Consul-General Roger Short. The twin blasts followed a pair of synagogue bombings a week earlier that killed 23 people, plus the bombers.
An Islamic website, claiming responsibility on behalf of an Al Qaeda unit, said: "Operation Islamic Iron Hammer" - a mocking allusion to US military clampdown on guerrillas in Iraq - the Al Qaeda had targeted British interests in Turkey to "shatter the peace of Britain, which battles Islam". Turkey was also targeted because it was a NATO member which had overwhelming Muslim majority, because of its ties with the US and Israel. The vanguards of the Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigade stated the British Consul was targeted because of his extensive experience in combating Islam and because he is considered the mastermind of British policy in the region comprising Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
The Turkish police have picked up clues pointing to Pakistan's links in the suicide bombing at a synagogue. The Turkish Daily News reported that police had found a Pakistani passport which probably belong to one of the attackers. It also reported that three of the four militants, who were involved in the bombings, had received training in Pakistan and Iran. That Pakistan is actively supporting the Taliban and bin Laden has been a subject of discussion in the US capital is no secret now.
The US has publicly refused to say whether Pakistan had purged pro-Taliban elements out of its intelligence services. Pakistan's ISI is seen as the chief sponsor of the Taliban regime that emerged as a militia to rule Afghanistan until being deposed by a US-led force in late 2001. Concern surfaced in a meeting of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee when California Congressman Brad Sherman asked: "Have the supporters of that ideology in that intelligence service been removed or converted?" Top US policymaker for South Asia Christina Rocca said she was unable to disclose US views. Meanwhile, the US position is going bad to worse in Iraq. The White House is now working up emergency plans to pullout of Iraq as soon as possible. It is accelerating the transfer of power in Iraq after being shown a CIA report warning that the guerrilla war is in danger of going out of US control. The report, commissioned by CIA Director George Tenet and written by the CIA station chief in Baghdad, says insurgency is gaining ground among the population. It describes the situation as explosive: "We are going to lose the situation unless there is a rapid and dramatic change of course." There are thousands in the resistance - not just a core of Baathists. Today, while the US is protecting itself from possible terrorist attacks, it has exposed its allies to the Al Qaeda terror. For the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, it is countries like India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia, to name a few, which have to face the consequences. If they strike in Iraq, bin Laden's jihadis strike back in Srinagar or Bali. Take on him in Iraq and he retaliates in Istanbul. If President Bush had taken the international community along in his war on terror, things could have been different. The US has neither finished the job in Afghanistan nor in Iraq or for that matter in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden must be laughing at the state of affairs while the rest of us have to live with the consequences.
The Al Qaeda's latest target is Turkey. Truck bombs killed at least 26 people and wounded nearly 450 in attacks on the British Consulate and London-based HSBC bank in Istanbul last week. The worst terror bombing in Turkey's history coincided with US President George Bush's trip to Britain. The blasts, which occurred five minutes apart, killed, among others, British Consul-General Roger Short. The twin blasts followed a pair of synagogue bombings a week earlier that killed 23 people, plus the bombers.
An Islamic website, claiming responsibility on behalf of an Al Qaeda unit, said: "Operation Islamic Iron Hammer" - a mocking allusion to US military clampdown on guerrillas in Iraq - the Al Qaeda had targeted British interests in Turkey to "shatter the peace of Britain, which battles Islam". Turkey was also targeted because it was a NATO member which had overwhelming Muslim majority, because of its ties with the US and Israel. The vanguards of the Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigade stated the British Consul was targeted because of his extensive experience in combating Islam and because he is considered the mastermind of British policy in the region comprising Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
The Turkish police have picked up clues pointing to Pakistan's links in the suicide bombing at a synagogue. The Turkish Daily News reported that police had found a Pakistani passport which probably belong to one of the attackers. It also reported that three of the four militants, who were involved in the bombings, had received training in Pakistan and Iran. That Pakistan is actively supporting the Taliban and bin Laden has been a subject of discussion in the US capital is no secret now.
The US has publicly refused to say whether Pakistan had purged pro-Taliban elements out of its intelligence services. Pakistan's ISI is seen as the chief sponsor of the Taliban regime that emerged as a militia to rule Afghanistan until being deposed by a US-led force in late 2001. Concern surfaced in a meeting of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee when California Congressman Brad Sherman asked: "Have the supporters of that ideology in that intelligence service been removed or converted?" Top US policymaker for South Asia Christina Rocca said she was unable to disclose US views. Meanwhile, the US position is going bad to worse in Iraq. The White House is now working up emergency plans to pullout of Iraq as soon as possible. It is accelerating the transfer of power in Iraq after being shown a CIA report warning that the guerrilla war is in danger of going out of US control. The report, commissioned by CIA Director George Tenet and written by the CIA station chief in Baghdad, says insurgency is gaining ground among the population. It describes the situation as explosive: "We are going to lose the situation unless there is a rapid and dramatic change of course." There are thousands in the resistance - not just a core of Baathists. Today, while the US is protecting itself from possible terrorist attacks, it has exposed its allies to the Al Qaeda terror. For the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, it is countries like India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia, to name a few, which have to face the consequences. If they strike in Iraq, bin Laden's jihadis strike back in Srinagar or Bali. Take on him in Iraq and he retaliates in Istanbul. If President Bush had taken the international community along in his war on terror, things could have been different. The US has neither finished the job in Afghanistan nor in Iraq or for that matter in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden must be laughing at the state of affairs while the rest of us have to live with the consequences.