Photo: This Oct. 7, 2009 photo shows Mohammed Abdullah al-Obeid, speaking during an interview with the Associated Press in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. The story told by Al-Obeid shows how insurgent networks manage to recruit unlikely fighters across the Islamic world for Iraq. He told his family he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Instead, the second-year college student packed a vinyl travel bag and left home in Saudi Arabia for a trip that would take him on a smuggling route across the Syrian border and into the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. (AP Photo) From Seattle PI:
BAGHDAD -- He told his family he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Instead, the second-year college student packed a vinyl travel bag and left home in Saudi Arabia for a trip that would take him on a smuggling route across the Syrian border and into the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
So began the underground life of safe houses, aliases and hit-and-run attacks of another Islamic foot soldier recruited to battle the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies.
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My Comment: A sobering analysis on how foreign fighters and jihadists bring pain and grief to Iraq.