Washington, Oct 24: The US has said that a shadowy Iraqi extremist group with possible links to al Qaeda and loyalists of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had emerged as the main adversary of its troops in the country.
Ansar al-Islam (AI) was the US' main "organised terrorist adversary in Iraq right now" and "we are concentrating our resources on that," Air Force Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing yesterday.
The main mountain base of AI was destroyed by US and Kurdish forces during the Iraq war earlier this year, but hundreds of its activists are believed to be still active.
Schwartz said there were some indications of links "between the former regime loyalists and some of the AI seniors, but generally speaking, they are independent actors."
Asked about possible links between the AI and some of the recent suicide bombers in Iraq, Schwartz replied: "we do not have a case, a convincing body of information that would lead to a particular group. The basic sense of it is, though, that this continues to be former regime loyalists or recruited foreign fighters."



Speaking about arms recovery in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said some 6,000 waepons caches have been identified, around 5,600 eliminated and another 100 are under military guard in Iraq.



In Afghanistan, "operation mountain viper" has netted mortar rounds, rockets and munitions during search and destroy missions in Kandahar and Orgun, Schwartz said.


Bureau Report