Foreign militants turn attention from Iraq to fight in Afghanistan

[Rose Siding]

PARIS -- The conflict in Iraq is drawing fewer foreign fighters as Muslim extremists aspiring to battle the West turn their attention back to the symbolically important and increasingly violent turf of Afghanistan, European and US antiterrorism officials say.

The shift of jihadis to Afghanistan this year suggests that Al Qaeda and its allies, armed with new tactics honed in Iraq, are coming full circle five years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban mullahs.
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As Iraqis have solidified control of their insurgency, the movement of foreign jihadis to Iraq has "significantly declined in recent months," said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, director of the DST, France's lead counterterrorism agency. "There is less need for them in Iraq, because there's a need above all for kamikazes and there are not an infinite number of volunteers," Bousquet, whose agency works closely with US, European, and Arab counterparts, said in an interview. "The Iraqi insurgency is now very well organized around Iraqis. . . . Those who want to fight, but not necessarily to die as martyrs, go elsewhere."

Simultaneously, Bousquet said, antiterrorism agents have detected a new flow of militants heading to Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 French soldiers are among approximately 40,000 foreign troops deployed.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/10/29/foreign_militants_turn_attention_from_iraq_to_fight_in_afghanistan/