Bin Laden’s death reduces resistance for US troops, says Western Security Official

Bin Laden’s death reduces resistance for US troops, says Western Security Official

A Western security official has expressed that lack of funds and Osama bin Laden’s death has reduced resistance for US troops. He said that number of foreign fighters attracted to Pakistan-Afghanistan jihad has considerably reduced after the death of Bin
Laden.

On the condition of anonymity, a security official told that the number of foreign jihadists is reducing, but at the same time, he warned that a large number of Pakistanis are eager to fill their space.

According to an article by AFP, the official said, “Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,”

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion – a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

He also said that the “Arab Spring” rebellions long with a number of jihadists moved to Libya to unite in the fight to dethrone Muammar Qaddafi from authority.

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” the official said.

For Frank Cilluffo, who collaborated “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Police Department, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region,
by disrupting al Qaeda’s (and associated entities’) training camps and pipelines.”

A researcher, Paul Cruickshank cites Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, who is the Al-Qaeda Spokesman, admitting that they have lost their freedom in a number of regions due to the lack of funds and unexpected and frequent drone attacks.

Nevertheless, Cruickshank said, “But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it’s likely that the number of volunteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are
US soldiers to fight, I don’t think it’s going to dry up entirely.”

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=12181

Posted by Mursil Mehmood Butt on Feb 9 2012. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry