Most foreign insurgents in Iraq are Saudis

July 15, 2007
Most foreign insurgents in Iraq are Saudis

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Most foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia, despite attempts by US officials to portray Syria and Iran as the main culprits of violence, a US newspaper reported Sunday.

Citing an unnamed senior US military officer and Iraqi lawmakers, the Los Angeles Times. newspaper said about 45 percent of all foreign militants targeting US troops and Iraqi security forces were from Saudi Arabia, 15 percent from Syria and Lebanon, and 10 percent from North Africa.

The senior US officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 50 percent of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come as suicide bombers, The Times pointed out.

Fears of new civil war increase as Lebanese political factions rearm

February 5, 2007
Fears of new civil war increase as Lebanese political factions rearm

Gun sales in Lebanon have tripled since the current standoff between the government and the
Hizbullah-led opposition began, prompting concern that political factions are rearming.

The increased presence of gunmen on the streets of the capital, Beirut, and reports of fighters
loyal to the Sunni-dominated government being trained overseas has heightened fears of a return to
civil war, which ravaged Lebanon from 1975 to 1990. Gunfights last month, some involving the army, left six civilians dead and more than 150 wounded.

"There is a reappearance of arms in the hands of almost every political group; we are sitting
on a powder keg, tension is increasing every day," said a prominent security analyst. "They don't
know what they are doing, they are going to destroy this country."