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Zarqawi reportedly chairs Terrorist meeting in Syria Iraq urged
its neighbors yesterday to help prevent foreign terrorists from
crossing into the country a day after a report that the leaders of
Iraq's most notorious terrorist group had held a secret strategy
session in Syria. More than a dozen Iraqis and four American
soldiers have been killed yesterday, the latest in a wave of attacks
that a top U.S. military official said had been planned at the
meeting in Syria.
 The employing of women to reduce suspicion is one tactic
used
by Al Qaeda and Hamas to reach difficult targets especially the Shiite
clergymen during public gatherings and meet the faithful events. The tent like garment (hijab) worn by Muslim women makes it
easier to use it as a disguise (as Al Libbi and his captors used it) and it is also easy to hide the suicide vest inside it.
In Iraq a number of Shiites have been murdered and now many Shiite clerics are
being targeted including two lieutenants of Grand Shiite Ayatollah
Ali Sistani. In retaliation for the first time, Sunni clerics have
been murdered by Shiite militiamen suspected to be from an informal
co-ordination front between the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades which
are normally at loggerheads. In his latest audio tape Zarqawi has termed the Shiites as traitors to Islam and collaborators of Americans and stated this as the explanation why he kills Shiite Muslims. This promted the maverick Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr to demand the immediate withdrawal of American troops, whose presence is backed by Ali Sistani and the Shiite led Government in Baghdad. But the signs from Iraq are ominous for an
increasingly bloodied Shiite-Sunni conflict. Photo Credits: Jewish World
Review ______________________________
There have been infiltrations of non-Iraqis through the border to
carry out sabotage activities. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said
of the meeting, which most-wanted militant Abu Musab Zarqawi might
have attended. He said, "It's up to our geographical neighbors. We
are keen to preserve relations between us and neighboring countries,
and these relations should be good." The prime minister had met
earlier with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, who
said Zarqawi's aim was to divide Iraqi society on Sunni-Shiite lines.
Part of these attacks stem from the successes of the new government.
The insurgents wanted to stop the elections and failed. The
insurgents wanted to stop the formation of a new Iraqi government and
they failed, so now they are trying to split the society,? Mr.
Zoellick said. He added that it's very clear that this evil wants
to destroy a democratic Iraq. These people will not be easy to
counter because they commit suicide in a random way. U.S.
military officials were quoted yesterday noting there had been almost
as many car bombings -- many of them suicide attacks -- in the first
18 days of May as in all of last year. The suicide attacks are
thought to be carried out almost exclusively by foreign extremists
who have filtered into Iraq from neighboring countries. An
analysis of Internet claims by Israeli analyst Reuven Paz, cited on
Sunday by The Washington Post, found that about 60 percent of the
suicide attackers were from Saudi Arabia, with Syrians, Iraqis and
Kuwaitis accounting for another 25 percent. Mr. Zoellick said
yesterday that he and Mr. Al-Jaafari had discussed the militant
meeting in Syria and the prime minister was quite strong in his
statements about the need for Iraq's neighbors, and particularly
Syria ... not to undermine stability in Iraq. The past weeks have
been one of the bloodiest periods since the U.S.-led invasion two
years ago. More than 520 people have been killed -- including an ex-
General who was now an Oil Ministry official shot in front of his
house -- since a Shi'ite-dominated government was announced April 28.
The Oil Ministry employee, Ali Hamid Alwan al-Dulaimy, 31, was killed
by three men firing pistols from a minivan as he walked out of his
house toward his car in Baghdad, said his brother, Ahmed Hamid Alwan
al-Dulaimy. Also yesterday, eight persons were killed and three
injured in the northern city of Mosul in an ambush aimed at Fawaz al-
Jarba, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly who was a candidate
for parliament speaker. Mr. al-Jarba was not injured. A number of
Shiites have been murdered and now many Shiites clerics are being
targeted including two lieutenants of Grand Shiite Ayatollah Ali
Sistani. In retaliation for the first time, Sunni clerics have been
murdered by Shiite militiamen suspected to be from an informal co-
ordination front between the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades which are
normally at loggerheads. The signs from Iraq are ominous for and
increasingly bloodied Shiite-Sunni conflict. Story Credits: Patrick Quinn, AP writing in the Washington Post
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