Coverstory
Al Qaeda An Al Qaeda rolodex A vast treasure trove of captured documents and records provides a unique insight into the
foreign jihadis fighting in Iraq, prompting the US
military to reassess how it views Al Qaeda.
The US commandos, acting on a tip-off, struck just before dawn on 11 September, 2007, shooting their way into a tent camp outside Sinjar, a small dusty town in northwestern Iraq about 16km from the
border with Syria. It was a key nerve centre in the insurgent “rat line” from Syria through which foreign
fighters made their way to the jihad against the Americans.The US military said six leaders of the
smuggling operation run by Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) were killed in the gun battle. One was a senior commander known as Muthanna. Two other jihadis perished when one of them detonated a suicide vest of explosives. The Sinjar camp was responsible for smuggling an estimated 90% of the foreign fighters who have entered Iraq along a 300km stretch of desert border running from Qaim, in flashpoint Anbar province, almost to the border with Turkey.
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