Iraq: Baath, al-Qaeda aim to disrupt elections

Iraqi National Security Adviser Safa Hussein says al-Qaeda and Baathi elements are cooperating in an effort to wreak havoc on the country's security in advance of March 7 parliamentary elections.

In an interview with AFP on Tuesday, Hussein said the al-Qaeda network has fallen under the influence of diehard elements of the ousted Baath party.

"Recently, during the last six months, there has been a change in al-Qaeda's strategy," Hussein said, speaking in his office in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound.

"We think that this change comes through the influence and effect of them being closer to the Baathists."

Hussein said that after the US-led invasion of the country, Baathists had joined a range of militant groups, including al-Qaeda, as they offered a more potent force against the occupation troops than the Baath's own unpopular party apparatus.

Although initially al-Qaeda restricted former Baathists to lower ranks, it allowed them to gain positions of power after its most notorious leader, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a 2006 air strike, Hussein said.

"So there were the right circumstances and environment for the Baath party to promote their strategy within al-Qaeda," he said. "Before, the influence was on lower levels."

Iraqi national security adviser meanwhile expected further waves of bombings like those of August, October and December which killed nearly 400 people in total, saying, "Their (al-Qaeda) intention continues in this direction."

"I think during the election period, it will continue this way," he added, referring to the run-up to the March 7 general election.

Hussein went on to note that the number of al-Qaeda militants had dropped from a peak of around 10,000 to less than 2,000 now.

He added that rich people and influential people in Saudi Arabia also provided much of al-Qaeda's funding in Iraq.

"It is not the Saudi government, but it is some families, including families in the government," he explained.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114938§ionid=351020201.