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11/20/2004:

"'Holy Warriors' Flock to Join Zarqawi in Iraq"

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) - The family of Sheikh Omar Jummah had no idea he was in Iraq until a midnight caller told them he had died fighting alongside al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Omar, 35, a Jordanian like Zarqawi, fought for a year with other Islamic militants battling to expel U.S.-led forces from Iraq. But he kept his family in the dark.

"He told us he was leaving for Saudi Arabia to take up a teaching job," said his 64-year-old father Youssef Jummah.

Jummah recalled that his son was deeply religious and had memorized the Koran by the age of 13. But no one in his family expected that his piety would drive him to militancy.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of foreign hostages and some of the bloodiest suicide attacks in postwar Iraq.

His followers are believed to form a hard core within a wider insurgency by Iraqi nationalists and Sunni Muslim fighters loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

With their religious fervor and ideological commitment, the U.S. military says Arab volunteers like Omar are behind some of the most audacious and lethal attacks.

Like the other Jordanian militants who kept their "jihad" plans secret, kick-boxing champion Bahaa Yahya, 23, told his family he was going to a tournament in Beirut.

When he arrived in Iraq, Yahya phoned his family to disclose where he had hidden a letter to be read after he died.

"I am in need of the prayers of my mother and brothers and to tell them the world is fighting our religion," Yahya said in the letter which his family opened after his death in September.

...They say that for the new jihadists the appeal of Iraq has surpassed Afghanistan, a magnet for a generation of Islamic militants seeking to fight the Soviet communists in the 1980s.

"Iraq is an open battleground for jihadists to confront America directly. In the space of a few hours, volunteers can leave their countries and find themselves in the heat of battle (in Iraq)," said a top security official.

Iraq has given Islamic extremists the opportunity to secure a "ticket to heaven" through martyrdom. Easily accessible and with the enemy all around, it has overtaken the Palestinian territories and Chechnya as the battleground of choice.

"The Americans gave the militant extremists a chance they had long dreamt of ... now their enemy has come to them," said a Jordanian ex-intelligence officer.

..."It has turned many gentle clerics and young men with strong religious convictions, but who (previously) could not stomach the sight of blood, into eager suicide bombers and executioners," said Sheikh Yusef Abu Kutaiba, a Muslim cleric.
Full Article: netscape.cnn.com