Sunday, June 11, 2006
BROAD STRATA OF COMMUNITY SUFFER HIGH DEATH RATE
Jihadis are becoming jihasbeens:
They rose up quickly to take up Osama bin Laden’s call for jihad, ruthless men in their 20s and 30s heralded as the next generation of global terror. Two years later, 40 percent are dead, targets of a worldwide crackdown that claimed its biggest victory with the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s front man in Iraq.
Manhunts in Asia, Africa and Europe have pushed most of the rest deep underground — finding refuge in wartorn Somalia or the jungles of the southern Philippines. While there are still recruits ready to take up al-Qaida’s call to arms, analysts say the newcomers have fewer connections than the men they are replacing, less training and sparser resources.
Al-Zarqawi, Nabil Sahraoui, Habib Akdas, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, Abdelkrim Mejjati: all dead. (The latter, shot by Saudi forces last year, is an interesting case: “Mejjati came from a privileged background, attending an exclusive French school in Morocco before turning to terrorism.” Haven’t heard much lately about “poverty breeding terrorism”, have we?) Syrian Loa’i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa is in a Turkish prison. And the progress continues:
The US military has intensified its offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq, staging 38 more raids based on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an air strike.
The fresh raids came as al-Qaida issued urgent appeals for money and volunteers to fight American forces, after al-Zarqawi’s death left it without a clearly recognised leader.
Step up to the plate, Big Chief Abdullah:
Abdullah bin Rashid al-Baghdadi, the Shura Council’s head, who has been named as one of the figures likely to take over Zarqawi’s role as the symbolic leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, vowed to continue the fight.
‘Iraq is the front line of defence for Islam and Muslims, so don’t fail to follow the path of the mujahideen, the caravan of martyrs and the faithful,’ Baghdadi told militants. He then vowed, ‘as for you, the slaves of the Cross [coalition forces], the grandsons of Ibn al-Alqami [Shias] and every infidel of the Sunnis, we can’t wait to sever your necks with our swords’.
Sunnis, Shias, and “slaves of the Cross”; ol’ Abdullah sure aims to get through a lot of necks. Better have him killed.