Interesting article from Reuters.
Come on down! Get your ticket punched.
>>>'Holy Warriors' Flock to Join Zarqawi in Iraq
Wed Nov 17, 2004 08:16 AM ET
By Suleiman al-Khalidi
AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) - The family of Sheikh Omar Jummah had no idea he was in Iraq until a midnight caller told them he had died fighting alongside al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Omar, 35, a Jordanian like Zarqawi, fought for a year with other Islamic militants battling to expel U.S.-led forces from Iraq. But he kept his family in the dark.
"He told us he was leaving for Saudi Arabia to take up a teaching job," said his 64-year-old father Youssef Jummah.
Jummah recalled that his son was deeply religious and had memorized the Koran by the age of 13. But no one in his family expected that his piety would drive him to militancy.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of foreign hostages and some of the bloodiest suicide attacks in postwar Iraq.
His followers are believed to form a hard core within a wider insurgency by Iraqi nationalists and Sunni Muslim fighters loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
With their religious fervor and ideological commitment, the U.S. military says Arab volunteers like Omar are behind some of the most audacious and lethal attacks.
Like the other Jordanian militants who kept their "jihad" plans secret, kick-boxing champion Bahaa Yahya, 23, told his family he was going to a tournament in Beirut.
When he arrived in Iraq, Yahya phoned his family to disclose where he had hidden a letter to be read after he died.
"I am in need of the prayers of my mother and brothers and to tell them the world is fighting our religion," Yahya said in the letter which his family opened after his death in September.
He had been fighting U.S. troops in Falluja, Iraq's most rebellious town, from where Zarqawi was thought to have been holed up, directing the insurgency.
U.S. forces launched a major assault on Falluja last week to recapture it from Islamic militants and Saddam loyalists. But U.S. commanders said they believed senior rebel leaders had slipped away before the offensive, leaving lesser figures to lead the 2,000 to 3,000 fighters remaining there.
INVASION STOKES ANGER
Some militants have come home, such as Jordanian Ibrahim Salem, who talked guardedly about a two-week stay in Falluja with Ansar al-Islam, among the most active of militant groups.
The death of a local Iraqi leader prompted Salem's abrupt return to Amman, but not before the 23-year-old chemistry student became versed in detonating car bombs.
"There was chaos after the killing of our leader and the mujahdeen (Muslim warriors) told us it was better for us to return home for now. But I am waiting for another opportunity," said Salem.
Muslim activists say last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq stoked the anger of many Muslim youths who sought to avenge the deaths of Iraqi civilians killed by American fire.
"I am determined to punish the tyrants and let them taste what we tasted to stop them from killing our women and children," said Yaseen Rabei, a Muslim militant with ties to Iraqi fighters operating in the western desert near the city of Ramadi.
Jordanian security officials estimate that several hundred Jordanian "holy warriors" have headed to Iraq since last year's war to join various Sunni Muslim militant groups.
They say that for the new jihadists the appeal of Iraq has surpassed Afghanistan, a magnet for a generation of Islamic militants seeking to fight the Soviet communists in the 1980s.
"Iraq is an open battleground for jihadists to confront America directly. In the space of a few hours, volunteers can leave their countries and find themselves in the heat of battle (in Iraq)," said a top security official.
Iraq has given Islamic extremists the opportunity to secure a "ticket to heaven" through martyrdom. Easily accessible and with the enemy all around, it has overtaken the Palestinian territories and Chechnya as the battleground of choice.
"The Americans gave the militant extremists a chance they had long dreamt of ... now their enemy has come to them," said a Jordanian ex-intelligence officer.
NEW BREED OF MILITANTS
The Iraq conflict has spawned a new breed of militants willing to use extreme violence such as beheading as a potent psychological weapon against "infidels."
"It has turned many gentle clerics and young men with strong religious convictions, but who (previously) could not stomach the sight of blood, into eager suicide bombers and executioners," said Sheikh Yusef Abu Kutaiba, a Muslim cleric.
Moderate clerics say Iraq is transforming pious, once non- violent Muslim extremists who shun mainstream Islamic parties seen as tainted by the politics of compromise.
For many young Jordanian militants, the dangers of Iraq only strengthen their resolve to go. Some leave behind successful careers and young children in pursuit of jihad.
They share an adulation of Zarqawi. "Sheikh Zarqawi is our Imam ... our leader. He bloodies the enemies of Islam like no other mujahid (holy warrior)," said Ali Khraisat, after prayers in a mosque in Salt, on the outskirts of Amman where scores of disenchanted youths have left to fight in Iraq.
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