Bagram Air Base, July 30: US operations in Iraq are providing "very good intelligence" on the al-Qaeda terror network, US military chief General Richard Myers said today during a brief visit to Afghanistan. "We're getting very good intelligence from operations in Iraq on the al-Qaeda and it's been very helpful in understanding the network and tracking down some of the leadership," Myers told reporters at a press conference at Bagram Air Base, 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul.
"The one thing we knew going into the war in Iraq is that the group Ansar al-Islam was operating in northeastern Iraq, it has ties to al-Qaeda ... That group is still active in Iraq. So those are known ties (between Iraq and al-Qaeda)," he said.
Myers denied that the war in Iraq had diverted resources from the fight against al-Qaeda and terrorism. "I don't think the war in Iraq has taken any of the resources away from the fight against international terrorism, specifically al-Qaeda. In fact I think the effort in Iraq has been very complementary.
"What we're doing in Afghanistan and what we're doing in Iraq is in many cases the same thing: We're denying terrorists sanctuary where they can operate and train and we're denying terrorists getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"This is all about the war on terrorism and I think people should be assured that there has not been any lessening of our ability to go after the al-Qaeda because of operations in Iraq, in fact just the opposite," said General Myers. Bureau Report