Nicosia, Mar 30: The Palestinian radical movement Islamic Jihad said today that it had sent a first batch of its suicide bombers to Baghdad to fight invading US and British forces. The Al-Quds Brigades, military wing of Islamic Jihad, "regales our people with the news of the arrival of the first batch of its suicide attackers in Baghdad," said a statement issued by the extremist group. The statement said they would be fighting alongside Arab volunteers against "the new Mongols that are invading the capital of the Islamic caliphate," in a reference to the 14th century sacking of Baghdad.
It followed an Islamic Jihad suicide attack in the Israeli town of Netanya today which killed the bomber and injured 26 people, and which the group said was "a gift from Palestine to the heroic people of Iraq." Four US soldiers were killed near Najaf yesterday in southern Iraq by an Iraqi who blew up a car bomb at a checkpoint in the first suicide attack of the war.
"Iraq, we heed your call," Islamic Jihad's statement said, adding,"It is one war from Najaf to Tulkarem and from Jenin to Baghdad." Bureau Report