Author: Agencies/London
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 22, 2002
An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 British-based
Islamic militants have been trained in Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorist camps
in Afghanistan and reportedly have links with Pakistan, a media report
said on Sunday.
The figure, equivalent to about
five infantry battalions, is British Government's latest internal assessment
of the potential threat Britain is facing from surviving members of Osama
bin Laden's terrorist outfit. The figure reflects the total number of those
living in Britain who have travelled to the camps in the past decade, a
report in The Sunday Times said.
"They all say they have been out
to Pakistan to visit relatives or have gone to work for a charity. We have
told them that we're keeping an eye on them," the report quoted a senior
officer as saying. All the recruits undertook basic military training as
well as religious and spiritual education. The military training involved
physical fitness and lessons in how to handle a rifle. A smaller number
went on to other camps where they were put through courses on how to carry
out surveillance against potential terrorist targets.
Quoting security sources, the report
said, "A small minority" ended up undergoing full terrorist training, learning
bomb-making and assassination techniques."
From this smaller pool, the Al-Qaeda
leadership drew volunteers to carry out "martyrdom" operations such as
suicide bombings. Among those recruited was Richard Reid, the so-called
shoe bomber who tried to blow up a passenger jet last December.
Many of the larger British contingent
fought in Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance and for Muslim extremists
in Bosnia and Chechnya. Some were killed but many have returned either
to Britain or to other countries in western Europe.
The sheer number of recruits has
shocked counter-terrorist experts who had previously believed no more than
50 to 80 extremists a year had travelled to the camps since 1992.
"If this estimate of the numbers
who have been trained in Afghanistan by the Taliban or Al-Qaeda is accurate,
then that would be worrying," a foreign office security official said.
According to the report special
branch officers have visited about a dozen Britons suspected of having
trained in camps. None has been arrested because the police have insufficient
evidence to link them to any terrorist activity.
