Captured Saudi vows: ‘I will fight again’

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Brian Murphy

updated 5:23 p.m. ET Oct. 10, 2009

BAGHDAD - He told his family he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Instead, the second-year college student packed a vinyl travel bag and left home in Saudi Arabia for a trip that would take him on a smuggling route across the Syrian border and into the heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

So began the underground life of safe houses, aliases and hit-and-run attacks of another Islamic foot soldier recruited to battle the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies.

The story — recounted to The Associated Press in a rare interview with a captured foreign fighter — is not one of extraordinary daring or singular cunning. It's about one of the anonymous trigger-pullers in alleys or roadsides — in this case, an ordinary history major who became a rank-and-file gunslinger for insurgent commanders.

The journey of Mohammed Abdullah al-Obeid offers a window into how extremist networks manage to replenish their ranks by combing campuses, markets and mosques for those willing to take up arms in Iraq — and now increasingly in Afghanistan. Even with violence in Iraq tailing off, authorities are concerned that the same clandestine channels used to bring the young al-Obeid into Iraq in late 2005 are still in operation and can be expanded at any time.

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has opened a feud with Syria over claims that it is harboring plotters connected to twin bombings in August at the foreign and finance ministries that killed nearly 100 people. Maliki also says Syria has failed to clamp down on insurgent pathways over the border.

Some former members of Saddam Hussein's regime and other Sunni allies fled to Syria after the 2003 invasion — eventually setting up insurgent networks that were tolerated by Syria as a way to keep pressure on American forces and Iraq's Shiite leadership.

The number and roles of foreign jihadists in Iraq over the years is still unclear. There is no disagreement that Iraqis comprised the vast majority of the Sunni insurgency, but certainly thousands — and perhaps more — Arabs and others have crossed the long, unguarded tracts over the Syrian border.

Faith in his border crossing
This is how al-Obeid says he entered Iraq — walking without a map and looking for the border town of al-Qaim on the desert horizon.

"I had no idea where I was or even when I crossed the border," the 27-year-old said in an interview arranged by Iraqi security officials in Baghdad's protected Green Zone. "I just knew that we would be soon, God willing, fighting Americans."

Al-Obeid was led into the interview in handcuffs and blindfolded. He wore a blue prison jumpsuit and plastic sandals. Security officers in street clothes were present for portions of the hour-long interview, but left the room at other times. It was not clear whether they were listening in or watching al-Obeid, who spoke in Arabic.

"I may be a prisoner, but I am also on a mission," said al-Obeid, who is clean-shaven with close-cropped hair. "If I'm let out, I will fight again."

His tale could not be independently verified, but it was consistent with other claims by the U.S. military and others on the recruitment and movement of foreign fighters into Iraq.

Student recruited him
Al-Obeid said he was first approached about joining the Iraq insurgency during his second year at the Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. A fellow student began giving him literature and DVDs about al-Qaida and the battles in Iraq, he said.

Within weeks, al-Obeid was attending meetings with others who claimed they were ready to join other Arab fighters in Iraq. They were then told that it was now or never, al-Obeid said. He never returned to class.

Al-Obeid — the eldest of four brothers and three sisters — said he went home and told his family he was planning to visit the holy city of Mecca. His parents gave him their blessings and some traveling money. Al-Obeid left with a small bag and about 5,000 Saudi rials, or about $1,300.

"I didn't look back. They thought I was going to Mecca, but I took a bus to Bahrain," he said. "A plane ticket was waiting for me there."

Al-Obeid claims that insurgent recruiters in Saudi Arabia paid for the next leg of his trip: flight to Syria via Dubai. He also carried a phone number to call in Damascus.

"The guy who answered identified himself by only his jihadi name, Abu Qa'qa," said al-Obeid. "He told me to get ready to travel the next morning."

His next stop: the Syrian city of Aleppo on the Mediterranean coast. Al-Obeid said he joined a group of about 20 Arab fighters from across the region: Tunisians, Saudis, Yemenis and others. After a few days, he said they were broken into smaller groups and driven close to the Iraqi border and pointed in the direction of al-Qaim.

Again, he had a mobile phone number of his next contact.

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