Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Salafi-Jihadist Context of the Iraq Bombings

From Assaf Moghadam at Counterterrorism Blog

While the war in Iraq has done much to intensify Salafi-Jihadism in Iraq, Salafi-Jihadist networks in Iraq had existed prior to the 2003 invasion of the country. In the course of the 1990s, these networks came to existence partially in response to the military and economic crisis brought by the first Gulf War. In the aftermath of 9/11 and Operation Enduring Freedom, when Salafi-Jihadists lost Afghanistan as a safe haven, additional Salafi-Jihadists entered Iraq, where they were joined by members of Salafi-Jihadist networks from places like Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and Europe.

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