African Link.

A growing number of Salafis from northern and sub-Saharan Africa are fuelling the insurgency with foot soldiers and financing. The NYT on June 11 quoted the US military as saying about 25% of foreign fighters captured in Iraq came from Africa. Recruits have joined Zarqawi, whose suicide bombings have killed hundreds of Iraqis in recent weeks. A small vanguard of veterans are returning home to countries like Morocco and Algeria, poised to use skills they learned in Iraq, from bomb making to battle planning, against their native governments.

To prevent jihadis from gaining new safe havens in Africa, the US is expanding a small military training programme which has operated on a shoestring in the past two years into something more ambitious and spending $100m annually for airport security, money-handling controls, school construction and other assistance to nine African countries. The US on June 6 began training exercises in Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria. Similar exercises began two weeks later in Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia and Morocco. About 1,000 US troops were to train 3,000 African soldiers in marksmanship, border patrol and airborne operations.

The NYT on June 11 quoted Theresa Whelan, the Pentagon's top Africa policy official, as saying: "For a change, we're trying to get ahead of the power curve in a region that we believe is susceptible to use by terrorists. It's a deterrent". US military and intelligence officials say vast swaths of the Sahara, from Mauritania to Sudan - smuggling routes for centuries - are becoming areas of operation for jihadis, including Al-Qaeda, the latter having stepped up its recruiting efforts in Africa. The NYT quoted Maj. Gen. Richard Zahner, chief intelligence officer for the European Command, as saying: "Al-Qaeda is assessing local groups for franchising opportunities. I'm quite concerned about that". Among locals is the Salafi Group in Algeria, which abducted 32 European tourists in early 2003. On June 7, the group claimed responsibility for a June 4 surprise attack against an isolated Mauritanian Army outpost which left 15 Mauritanians and nine insurgents dead. The group said in a message posted on a Website the assault was in response to the training exercises.

The NYT quoted US defence officials as saying the number of African militants and the funds they provide for the war in Iraq - $10,000 to $100,000 - was not large compared to support from states like Syria or Saudi Arabia. "But it allows those elements to get in and be players". Not all north Africans turning up in Iraq belong to the Salafis or the Moroccan Islamist Combatant Group. But the skills they learn and the connections they get with other insurgents there is making Iraq a training ground. The NYT quoted a defence official as saying: "They're getting to use those training skills, hone them and eventually go somewhere else and use them".