European Militant Network Shut Down

Authorities in Europe have shut down a network that recruited at least 200 Islamic militants to carry out attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Italian investigators told The Associated Press. The volunteers were drawn from Muslim youths living on the fringes of society in Western Europe, with loose connections to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam, a militant group in northern Iraq. One recruit from Italy may have been involved in a rocket attack on the Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad in October, when the U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying there, officials told AP. There are also suspicions that some of the Muslim militants have been involved in suicide attacks in Iraq, although there was no hard evidence, one senior Italian official involved in the investigation told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. An intelligence report, for example, said recruits from Europe may have been involved in the August bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, officials said. But that report apparently has not been corroborated. Full Story