http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=908739Qaida may see more losses than gains in Iraq as country enters civil war --
UN UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (KUNA) -- A UN report on Wednesday said that as Iraq continues to slide towards civil war, Al-Qaida "may paradoxically see more losses than gains." The report, presented to the Security Council by Argentinean Ambassador Cesar Mayoral, Chairman of the Security Council Committee concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban, said Al-Qaida has gained by continuing to play a central role in the fighting and in encouraging the growth of sectarian violence and Iraq has provided many recruits and an "excellent" training ground.
But, the report added, Al-Zarqawi's death, "while a significant blow" to terrorists in Iraq, "may not have been totally unwelcome to the Al-Qaida leadership.
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Many of these, upon arrival to their homeland from Iraq, expressed their "dissatisfaction that, upon arrival in Iraq, they were asked to kill fellow Muslims rather than foreign soldiers, or even told that there was no role for them except as suicide bombers." The report stated that while Al-Zarqawi's successor - Abu Hamza Al-Muhajir, an Egyptian - will continue to provide Al-Qaida in Iraq with links to external groups, his appointment "may give rise to further tensions between a 'foreign' leader and the Iraqi regional commanders." "The prominent role of Al-Qaida may diminish as the violence escalates between communities, and distinctions blur between sectarian attacks on markets and places of worship, or purely criminal kidnapping and protection rackets on the one hand, and the fight against Iraqi and non-Iraqi forces on the other," the report stated.
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It also noted that while the Taliban have not been found fighting outside Afghanistan-Pakistan, there have been reports of them training in both Iraq and Somalia. The report said the team witnessed an "increasing willingness of states to band together to prevent the movement of terrorists and their supporters across borders, and these efforts have made a difference." It added, however, that at the same time, "there is no doubt that listed persons continue to travel and the problems of un-policed borders, and widely available stolen, falsified or forged documents remain persistent and difficult to address." The report also warned that many countries are only looking for ways to "suppress" the problem of Terrorism, but "not to defeat it." The team admitted in the report "it is clear that there are no easy solutions."