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Increasing number of african insurgents in iraq { June 10 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3219539http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3219539
June 10, 2005, 1:32AM
Number of African insurgents in Iraq increasing
U.S expanding programs aimed to fight terrorism on the continent
By ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times
WASHINGTON - A growing number of Islamic militants from northern and sub-Saharan Africa are fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq, fueling the insurgency with foot soldiers and some financing, U.S. military officials say.
About 25 percent of the nearly 400 foreign fighters captured in Iraq come from Africa, according to the military's European Command, which oversees military operations in most of the African continent.
Some recruits have joined the network of the militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which has carried out many of the sophisticated attacks and suicide car-bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in the past several weeks, the officials said.
A small vanguard of veterans is returning home to countries like Morocco and Algeria, poised to use skills they learned on the battlefield in Iraq, from bomb making to battle planning, against their native governments, the officials said.
To combat the immediate threat and to prevent terrorists from gaining new havens in the region, the Bush administration is expanding a small military training program that has operated on a shoestring the past two years into a more ambitious program spending $100 million annually to provide airport security, money-handling controls, school construction and other assistance to nine African nations.
As part of this broader strategy, the United States on Monday began training exercises in Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria.
Four other countries — Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco — will also participate by the time the exercises finish in two weeks. About 1,000 U.S. troops will train 3,000 African soldiers in marksmanship, border patrol and airborne operations.
U.S. military and intelligence officials say vast swaths of the Sahara, from Mauritania in the west to Sudan in the east, which have been smuggling routes for centuries, are becoming areas of operation for terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, which has quietly stepped up its recruiting efforts in the region.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, President Jalal Talabani announced Thursday that the government will give Sunni Arabs 25 seats on the committee charged with drafting the nation's constitution. The move was seen as a crucial step in keeping the Sunnis engaged in the political process.
The announcement came the day after a group of Sunni leaders said they would walk out of the constitutional process and possibly invoke a veto by provincial bloc vote if Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers didn't create an additional 25 slots for them.
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