Zawahiri wants to spread al Qaeda infleunce to rest of Middle East

Sunday Times:

THE deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged supporters in Iraq to extend their “holy war” to other Middle Eastern countries.

In a letter sent to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq in the past few weeks, Zawahiri claims that it is defeating US forces and urges followers to expand their campaign of terror.

He conjures a vision of an Islamic state comprising Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, where Al-Qaeda has already gained its first footholds.

The goal of an Islamic “greater Syria”, first outlined by Zawahiri two years ago, is detailed in the letter amid growing concern about the activities of new groups under Al-Qaeda’s influence in the countries concerned.

In Lebanon yesterday, Islamist militants of various nationalities from Fatah al-Islam were holding out under renewed army bombardment in Nahr al-Bared camp near Tripoli. Many fought and trained in Iraq.

The little-known Jaish al-Islam claims to be holding Alan John-ston, the BBC journalist, in Gaza, where militants disillusioned with Hamas are said to be drifting to Al-Qaeda.

Jaish al-Islam has demanded the release of a woman who tried to blow herself up during the 2005 bombing of a wedding reception in the Jordanian capital of Amman, an operation ordered by Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In Syria, the Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Suri is believed to have been arrested, but cells are said to be recruiting in Palestinian camps near Damascus, the capital. Al-Qaeda websites are demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

Zawahiri’s letter was sent to Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and intercepted by a Middle Eastern intelligence service.

...

This news will come as a shock to Democrats who alternative and sadly think al Qaeda is not in Iraq, or think that if they are there, al Qaeda will leave if we leave Iraq. The letter reveals the larger intentions of al Qaeda leadership and the confidence it has gained from the Democrats' plan to retreat from Iraq. It is just further proof that retreat will not end this war, but it will give our enemy more resources with which to attack us.

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