cerulean
03-28-2003, 01:35 PM
http://www.news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=367832003
Friday 28 March 2003
PoWs: 'Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq'
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN, IN SOUTHERN IRAQ AND PAUL GALLAGHER
CAPTURED Iraqi soldiers have told British interrogators that al-Qaeda terrorists are fighting on the side of Saddam Hussein’s forces against allied troops near Basra.
At least a dozen members of Osama bin Laden’s network are in the town of Az Zubayr, where they are co-ordinating grenade and gun attacks on coalition positions, according to the Iraqi prisoners of war.
It was believed that last night, British forces were preparing a military strike on the base where the al-Qaeda unit was understood to be holed up.
A senior British military source inside Iraq said last night: "The information we have received from PoWs today is that an al-Qaeda cell may be operating in Az Zubayr. There are possibly around a dozen of them and that is obviously a matter of concern to us."
If terrorists are found, it would be the first proof of a direct link between Saddam’s regime and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.
The connection would give credibility to the argument that Tony Blair used to justify war against Saddam - a "nightmare scenario" in which the Iraqi leader might eventually pass weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.
On Wednesday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said the coalition had solid evidence senior al-Qaeda operatives had visited Baghdad in the past.
He added that Saddam had an "evolving" relationship with the terror network.
The presence of al-Qaeda terrorists would go some way to explaining the continued resistance to forces from Britain and the United States in southern Iraq, an area dominated by Shiite Moslems traditionally hostile to Saddam’s regime. . . .
Wonder how this development will affect world opinion?
Friday 28 March 2003
PoWs: 'Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq'
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN, IN SOUTHERN IRAQ AND PAUL GALLAGHER
CAPTURED Iraqi soldiers have told British interrogators that al-Qaeda terrorists are fighting on the side of Saddam Hussein’s forces against allied troops near Basra.
At least a dozen members of Osama bin Laden’s network are in the town of Az Zubayr, where they are co-ordinating grenade and gun attacks on coalition positions, according to the Iraqi prisoners of war.
It was believed that last night, British forces were preparing a military strike on the base where the al-Qaeda unit was understood to be holed up.
A senior British military source inside Iraq said last night: "The information we have received from PoWs today is that an al-Qaeda cell may be operating in Az Zubayr. There are possibly around a dozen of them and that is obviously a matter of concern to us."
If terrorists are found, it would be the first proof of a direct link between Saddam’s regime and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.
The connection would give credibility to the argument that Tony Blair used to justify war against Saddam - a "nightmare scenario" in which the Iraqi leader might eventually pass weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.
On Wednesday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said the coalition had solid evidence senior al-Qaeda operatives had visited Baghdad in the past.
He added that Saddam had an "evolving" relationship with the terror network.
The presence of al-Qaeda terrorists would go some way to explaining the continued resistance to forces from Britain and the United States in southern Iraq, an area dominated by Shiite Moslems traditionally hostile to Saddam’s regime. . . .
Wonder how this development will affect world opinion?