BRITAIN and other European countries are contributing to a production line of young suicide bombers who are recruited by a network of radical Islamic middlemen and sent to their deaths in Iraq.
Intelligence evidence, some of it gleaned from two would-be suicide bombers who changed their minds at the last moment and managed to escape from Iraq, has uncovered a highly professional infrastructure based in Damascus, the Syrian capital, through which most recruits pass before heading across the border.
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Security sources said yesterday that there appeared to be only a trickle of recruits from Britain to Iraq. But there was enough evidence to show that there was a British link in the network of suicide planners.
The largest amount of intelligence on the suicide bomber network has been gleaned by the Americans, who have warned the Syrians on numerous occasions to clamp down on the individuals, some of them known businessmen, who are suspected of being the “facilitators”, providing all the necessary groundwork and preparation for the volunteer bombers.
Senior American officials told The Times that there was a rapid turnover of bomber recruits and that everything was done to make sure that once they had put themselves forward for a mission in Iraq they were not given enough time to change their minds.
They said there were hundreds of Arabic websites concerned with the Jihad which called for volunteer fighters. Anyone reacting to one of the websites and showing interest in carrying out missions in Iraq was contacted and given instructions. Network facilitators throughout Europe and the Arab world were in place to move the production line along.
The officials said the volunteers were flown to Damascus and taken to a safe house where their personal documents were removed and replaced with false identity papers. “They don’t spend much time in Damascus but as soon as things are ready they are escorted to the border with Iraq, and either through bribery or because of lax border arrangements, the recruits are taken into Iraq,” the officials said.
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The next stage is to introduce the recruits to the man who provides the explosives and the mission. “This all takes place in a safe house in Baghdad or Ramadi or wherever and within days they are expected to carry out their mission,” the officials said.
The tight programme, lasting perhaps two weeks in total, from being recruited to dying as a suicide bomber, was most graphically revealed by two 18-year-old Kuwaitis who went through all the stages, but in the belief they were going to fight the Americans in Iraq, not be instructed to die for the cause in a suicide attack.
The officials said: “They changed their minds and managed to escape to the Saudi border where they were picked by the Saudi authorities and handed over to us.”
As far as is known, the Syrian facilitators are not linked officially to the Government in Damascus, but both American and British diplomats have put pressure on Syria to take action against the powerful figures who are the masterminds behind many of the suicide bombings and also some kidnappings. A Syrian businessman was named recently by the Romanian authorities for financing the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq.
American and British intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on the Arabic websites which generate the production line of suicide bombers.
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The intelligence about the British connection came from investigations in Iraq. It is hoped that police inquiries here will now reveal what the suspected suicide bomber was doing in Britain, whom he met and where else he may have lived.