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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/21/in...21baghdad.html
By DEXTER FILKINS Published: October 21, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 20 -Some 312 foreign nationals, including one American, have been captured while taking part in the insurgency in Iraq since April of this year, a senior American military commander said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the spokesman for American forces here, said most of the foreigners captured were from Egypt, where 78 prisoners were from; followed by Syria, with 66; Sudan, 41; and Saudi Arabia, with 32. The rest of the detainees come from 23 different countries, most of them predominantly Muslim nations, but also some European ones like Britain, Denmark, France and Ireland.
The military offered few details on the captured foreigners. The American in custody, they said, was of Arab descent, as were the two Britons and one Israeli. No other details were made available on those prisoners, nor on any of the others.
Non-Iraqis make up a small percentage of the more than 10,000 suspected fighters currently detained in Iraq, and are believed to comprise less than 5 percent of the fighters in the insurgency. But they are also believed to be among the most zealous and the most ruthless; American commanders say that foreigners make up more than 90 percent of the suicide bombers. Many of those suicide attacks are directed at civilians.
Chief among the foreign fighters in Iraq is a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. He is believed to be responsible for dozens of suicide bombers that have killed hundreds of civilians, and presides over a sophisticated network of guerrilla cells.
The foreign fighters are generally thought to enter Iraq from Syria, where they move through the cities and towns along the Euphrates River corridor toward Baghdad. In recent months, the American military has carried out a number of operations along the Euphrates to disrupt the flow of fighters.
That effort has brought the fighting right up to, and at times over, the Syrian border, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, according to American officials. Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct operations inside Syria, using small, covert teams for intelligence gathering.
A series of clashes have occurred between American and Syrian troops in the last year, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians. That skirmish, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts, according to American and Syrian officials.
By DEXTER FILKINS Published: October 21, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 20 -Some 312 foreign nationals, including one American, have been captured while taking part in the insurgency in Iraq since April of this year, a senior American military commander said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the spokesman for American forces here, said most of the foreigners captured were from Egypt, where 78 prisoners were from; followed by Syria, with 66; Sudan, 41; and Saudi Arabia, with 32. The rest of the detainees come from 23 different countries, most of them predominantly Muslim nations, but also some European ones like Britain, Denmark, France and Ireland.
The military offered few details on the captured foreigners. The American in custody, they said, was of Arab descent, as were the two Britons and one Israeli. No other details were made available on those prisoners, nor on any of the others.
Non-Iraqis make up a small percentage of the more than 10,000 suspected fighters currently detained in Iraq, and are believed to comprise less than 5 percent of the fighters in the insurgency. But they are also believed to be among the most zealous and the most ruthless; American commanders say that foreigners make up more than 90 percent of the suicide bombers. Many of those suicide attacks are directed at civilians.
Chief among the foreign fighters in Iraq is a Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. He is believed to be responsible for dozens of suicide bombers that have killed hundreds of civilians, and presides over a sophisticated network of guerrilla cells.
The foreign fighters are generally thought to enter Iraq from Syria, where they move through the cities and towns along the Euphrates River corridor toward Baghdad. In recent months, the American military has carried out a number of operations along the Euphrates to disrupt the flow of fighters.
That effort has brought the fighting right up to, and at times over, the Syrian border, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, according to American officials. Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct operations inside Syria, using small, covert teams for intelligence gathering.
A series of clashes have occurred between American and Syrian troops in the last year, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians. That skirmish, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts, according to American and Syrian officials.
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