Yemenis Among the Largest Contingent of Suicide Bombers in Iraq
About 90% of suicide bombers in Iraq are foreigners with the vast majority from Yemen and North Africa. 90% of these foreign fighters go to Iraq via Syria. The State Department is warning…Syria. If Syria does close the borders, where are the Yemeni suicide bombers going to go? They won’t dissappear into thin air. It might be a good idea to start focusing on the souce of the suicide bombers, those in Yemen who facilitate their indocrination, training, documents, financing and transport, and later praise their deaths and the death of US troops.
Also more chlorine attacks in Iraq by “foreign fighters.” In 2005, the Yemeni military used chlorine gas as a weapon against Shiite rebels; in 2007, Yemeni jihaddists use chlorine gas in attacks in Iraq against US troops. Predictable. What are all the Salafi jihaddis currently networking in Sa’ada going to do after the Houthi rebellion is over, attack the Socialists? I don’t think so.
WASHINGTON — A U.S. State Dept. official said about 90 percent of the suicide attackers in Iraq came from Syria.
“It has to stop,” said David Satterfield, the chief State Department adviser on Iraq.
Officials said that despite numerous appeals, Syria has failed to stop the flow of Sunni suicide bombers to Iraq. They said the lion’s share of suicide bombers were foreign Arab nationals who entered Syria and made their way to Iraq.“They [suicide bombers] see Syria as a more accommodating country through which to transit across the border to come into Iraq to perpetrate their terror,” Satterfield.
Satterfield said the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that between 85 and 90 percent of suicide bombers in Iraq entered from Syria. In an address to the Washington Institute on March 27, Satterfield said 90 percent of suicide bombers in Iraq were foreigners.
Officials said North Africans and Yemenis comprised the largest element among the foreign suicide bombers. But they said Saudi nationals have become an increasing factor in the Sunni insurgency war in Iraq.
In his address, Satterfield again warned Syria to stop the flow of would-be suicide bombers and other insurgents to Iraq. He said Iraq and the United States have sought to stem the flow of insurgents from Syria to Iraq’s Al Anbar province.
“It has to stop,” Satterfield said. “It is not in Syria’s long term interests to let this violence continue. We and the Iraqi security forces have done our best. It is a long, long border.”
Over the last month, the Bush administration has resumed high-level contacts with the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad. Officials said that during the March 10 meeting in Baghdad, the U.S. delegation accused Iran and Syria of interfering in Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to attend the next meeting that included Syria in April.
“We would hope that the Syrian government understands as well that its rhetoric for a peaceful and stable Iraq has to be matched by actions,” Satterfield said.
In Iraq, foreign suicide bombers coming from Syria have increasingly used chlorine in their attacks. On Wednesday, at least 15 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers were injured when suicide bombers detonated explosives on trucks that contained chlorine in the Anbar province.
517 people killed in the last week in Iraq.
