al Qaeda, al-Ajmi, Guantanamo, Iran, Iraq, Kuwaiti 12

Al Qaeda: former Guantanamo detainee suicide bomber sent to Iraq by Iran

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The Associated Press reports:

A Sunni fundamentalist from Kuwait who has been linked by the United Nations and the United States to al-Qaida, said in an interview published Wednesday that Iran is supporting Sunni Arab insurgents fighting American troops in Iraq. The comments by Mubarak al-Bathali came just days after reports surfaced here that three Kuwaitis recently carried out suicide bombings in Iraq, including a Kuwaiti who was a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Kuwaiti authorities have not confirmed those reports.

The U.S. has accused Iran — which is predominantly Shiite like Iraq — of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran denies this and blames the U.S. troops presence for the violence in Iraq.

The accusations by al-Bathali were a rare occasion that a Sunni fundamentalist claimed Tehran also backs Sunni extremists, linked to al-Qaida. In the battlefields of Iraq, Sunnis and Shiites are archenemies.

In the interview in Kuwaiti Al-Qabas daily, al-Bathali said that Tehran is supplying al-Qaida fighters and other Jihad movements in Iraq with “weapons and money” and claimed he has personally sent fighters to Iraq by way of Syria.

Al-Bathali alleged that Iran’s motivation for backing both the Sunnis and Shiites opposed to Washington, was because Tehran is eager to “place hurdles in front of America” so that the U.S. would be “too busy to fight” Iran. He also said Iran facilitates the entry of fighters into Iraq and Afghanistan. “Any person who wants Jihad (holy war), is of age and responsible and honest in his intent, I send him and prepare him,” al-Bathali said. “I guarantee passage into Syria and reception there, until he finds himself in Iraq carrying a weapon and fighting.”

Al-Bathali, whose remarks were unusually bold, said he has also sent Kuwaitis to fight in Kosovo and Chechnya.

He gave no evidence of his claims and provided no further details. But he mentioned his son, Abdel Rahman, who was captured in Iraq in 2004 and sentenced there to 10 years for working with al-Qaida.

“If I had sons other than Abdel Rahman, I would have sent them to fight the Americans until doomsday,” he said in the interview. Al-Bathali could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment.

In January, the U.N. Security Council added al-Bathali and two other Kuwaitis to a list of about 480 individuals and businesses linked to al-Qaida and its sponsor the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Treasury Department has said al-Bathali is a fundraiser and recruiter for Osama bin Laden’s terror network and has facilitated travel for extremists planning to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Al-Bathali told Al-Qabas that he doesn’t send fighters to Iraq through the Iraq-Kuwait border because the area beyond the boundary in southern Iraq is controlled by “Shiites and British forces.” Instead, the “easiest borders have been the Syrian and Saudi,” he said.

The U.S. has chastised Syria for allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq. Syria denies the charges and claims it’s impossible to seal its border completely.

Small oil-rich Kuwait has been a major Washington ally since the U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War that liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation. However, some of its fundamentalist Muslims disapprove of U.S. forces being based in their country or any other in the area.

Media reports have said that three Kuwaitis, including Abdullah al-Ajmi who was released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantnamo Bay in 2005, carried out suicide bombings in Iraq recently [Ed. — emphasis added mine]. The families of al-Ajmi and another alleged bomber, Bader al-Harbi, said they received anonymous calls informing them the men died in Iraq.

Al-Bathali told Al-Qabas the three left Kuwait “only after a martyrdom operation was prepared for them in agreement with coordinators” in Iraq. He did not say if he had a role in sending them himself.

al-Ajmi, Guantanamo, Iraq, Kuwaiti 12, War on Terror

Third Kuwaiti conducts suicide attack in Iraq

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Kuwait’s Arab Times reports:

A third Kuwaiti, identified as Bader Al-Harbi has reportedly carried out a suicide attack in Iraq according to knowledgeable sources. The sources told the Arab Times unlike the two other Kuwaitis — Abdullah Al-Ajmi and Nasser Al-Dousari — who are also said to have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq, Al-Harbi was not an ‘inmate’ of the infamous X-Ray Camp in Guantanamo, Cuba [Abdullah Al-Ajmi, aka Abdullah Saleh Ali al-Ajmi, was detained at Guatanamo from 2002 to 2005]. However, he reportedly was in Afghanistan and on his return at the Kuwait International Airport, he was whisked away, imprisoned and released. The sources added when the security authorities felt he was dangerous and tried to arrest him, he gave the securitymen a slip and left for Syria with the two other Kuwaitis from where he left for Iraq and was killed in a suicide attack. Although the details of the operation are sketchy, the sources said Al-Harbi alone drove a bomb laden vehicle while Dousari and Al-Ajmi were reportedly in another car [Ed. — emphasis added mine].

Al-Harbi is believed to be 36 years old and survived by two wives and seven children. The youngest is believed to be just five days old. The sources quoting Al-Harbi’s brother said he left Kuwait about 45 days ago to perform Umra, a minor pilgrimage, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, the family later discovered he had left for Syria. The brother added the family received a phone call from an unidentified person who said he was calling from the Islamic State of Iraq. He informed the family that Bader died a martyr in a suicide operation.

Meanwhile the Al-Anba daily said Bader left for Saudi Arabia three weeks ago to perform Umra but he called his family from Syria and sent them a picture posing with Abdullah Al-Ajmi. After his death the family received condolences at their home in Jahra. Mesfer Al-Ajmi, Abdullah’s brother said unidentified persons lured his brother to fight against the US forces in Iraq. He also criticized the State Security police for failing to monitor the activities of the so-called al-Qaeda ‘sleeper cells.’