LAT: Insurgents Are Mostly Iraqis, U.S. Military Says

[joefree1]

September 28, 2004

Insurgents Are Mostly Iraqis, U.S. Military Says
* Bush, Kerry and Allawi have cited foreign fighters as a major security problem.
By Mark Mazzetti, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The insistence by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and many U.S. officials that foreign fighters are streaming into Iraq to battle American troops runs counter to the U.S. military's own assessment that the Iraqi insurgency remains primarily a home-grown problem.

In a U.S. visit last week, Allawi spoke of foreign insurgents "flooding" his country, and both President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, have cited these fighters as a major security problem.

But according to top U.S. military officers in Iraq, the threat posed by foreign fighters is far less significant than American and Iraqi politicians portray. Instead, commanders said, loyalists of Saddam Hussein's regime — who have swelled their ranks in recent months as ordinary Iraqis bristle at the U.S. military presence in Iraq — represent the far greater threat to the country's fragile 3-month-old government.
More ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-insurgent28sep28,1,3051798.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Not good news.

[Moderator]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x869784