At least a handful of high-ranking members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network have taken shelter in Iraq, U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
In its Wednesday edition, the paper said that the presence of those members could complicate U.S. efforts against the network's leadership but could also give President George W. Bush administration’s another rationale for possible military action against Saddam’s regime.
Iraq has repeatedly been cited by US administration officials as a safe haven for al Qaeda fighters who have fled the intensive U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
However, what is new, officials said, is the number and senior rank of the al Qaeda members who have been mentioned in recent classified intelligence reports as being in Iraq.
"There are some names you'd recognize," one defense official conveyed. Alluding to these reports, US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday repeated earlier assertions about al Qaeda's presence in Iraq, but he declined to detail the evidence.
"I suppose that, at some moment, it may make sense to discuss that publicly," he said during a news conference. "It doesn't today. But what I have said is a fact -- that there are al Qaeda in a number of locations in Iraq." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
