“The official said the number of foreign fighters has dropped off since the Sinjar raid. The U.S. military believes both Syria and Saudi Arabia in recent months have taken a number of actions to reduce the flow of foreign fighters.”
That’s nice of them, over four years into the war, though it certainly sounds like the Sinjar raid helped, too. And now, Libya has some explaining to do. “‘Al Qaeda rolodex’ found in Iraq,” by Barbara Starr for CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) — As many as 60 percent of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq in the past year have come from Saudi Arabia and Libya, according to documents
discovered in a raid in September near the Syrian border, a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad confirmed to CNN Thursday.
The documents confiscated in that raid listed the identities of more than 700
foreign fighters in Iraq, whom the United States believes entered that country since August
2006. The official describes the documents as “an al Qaeda rolodex.”
Scrutinized along with other intelligence in the hands of the U.S. military, the documents show that 60 percent of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq during that time frame came either from Saudi Arabia or Libya, the official said.
The United States believes 305 foreign fighters came from Saudi Arabia, and 137
came from Libya.
The raid took place in Sinjar, close to the Syrian border. That raid has been discussed in the past by the U.S. military, but this is the first time the intelligence findings have been discussed in such detail. The New York Times first reported the new
information on Thursday.
The official said the number of foreign fighters has dropped off since the Sinjar raid. The U.S. military believes both Syria and Saudi Arabia in recent months have taken a number of actions to reduce the flow of foreign fighters.