Europe is emerging as one of the most fertile recruiting grounds for radical Islamists bent on terrorism, western authorities say.
Intelligence officials report an increasing number of recruits from Sweden to Italy are making their way to Iraq under the auspices of Ansar al-Islam, a once-obscure Kurdish group that has evolved into a global network of jihadists, the Washington Post said Friday.
Typical Ansar recruits are young Muslim men of Middle Eastern descent living in Europe. European authorities say that recent Ansar activity includes the following:
-- One of Ansar's top commanders in Iraq, Abu Mohammed Lubnani, once operated as an armed robber in Denmark;
-- Swedish police arrested four Ansar members for allegedly helping to plan twin bombings that killed more than 100 people on Feb. 1, 2004, in the Iraqi city of Irbil; and
-- German police said they broke up a hastily arranged plot by three Ansar members to attack interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a visit to Berlin.
"Ansar is very good -- a leading power -- in terms of mobilizing followers to fight the Americans in Iraq," said Guenther Beckstein, interior minister for the German state of Bavaria.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
