Robbed of its recruiting pool in urban areas as most of its leaders are dead or behind bars, al Qaeda in Iraq has resorted to the recruitment of women and children as young as eleven years of age. Al Qaeda has been largely driven out from al Anbar province by the Sunni Awakening movement but now it has emerged in the unstable region of Diala, parts of Mosul, and the districts of al Amiriya and al Athimiya in the capital, Baghdad.
"Desperate people resort to desperate acts," according to a resident in Mosul who was tasked by tribal leaders to keep an eye on the children in his neighborhood.
In a reflection of the terror group's setbacks, al Qaeda has had little choice but to recruit these women and young children through threats, coercion, monetary enticement and kidnapping. In 2006, the terror organization created the al Qaeda Cadets to recruit suicide bombers among young Iraqi boys to compensate for the shortage of foreign fighters.
Today, the Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel aired a video showing young Iraqi boys reading their living testaments before carrying out a suicide operation. This new al Qaeda franchise is called "Youths of Heaven."
Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report on Link TV
Follow Jamal Dajani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamaldajani
About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.
Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. . . . In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com/