BRIEFS

LeT RECRUITING AFGHAN REFUGEES TO SUPPORT TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

According to an October 5 report on Afghan National Television, members of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) party have been persuading Afghan refugees to take up arms against the Afghan government. The report cites Bakhar Information Agency stating that LeT members went to the Ahl-e Hadith mosque in the Jalozai refugee camp in Peshawar on the night of October 4 to encourage Afghan refugees to join the Taliban and fight against the government in Kabul. The refugees were promised training and money (to pay for expenses) if they decided to join the jihad. A separate report in the Kabul Times, dated October 7, found that LeT had also started collecting financial donations from refugees in Jalozai for the Taliban. LeT, or the Army of the Pure, is one of the most well-organized Islamic militant organizations in Pakistan.

U.S. MILITARY OFFICIAL CLAIMS THAT ASG AND JI PLANNING NEW ATTACKS

After launching Operation Oplan Ultimatum in the Philippines, a U.S. military adviser told reporters that based upon bomb-making devices found in the raids, it is possible that the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiya (JI) are planning to bomb “big targets” outside of the Sulu archipelago (The Philippine Star, October 9). Philippine soldiers and U.S. military advisers discovered the explosives after raiding an ASG camp in Indanan. The explosives were similar to those used in Afghanistan and in Bali, and the size of the bombs suggested that they were meant for use against larger targets and not those found in Sulu. The ASG camp was used as a training center for JI leaders Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who are both top bomb-makers and are wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people (Terrorism Focus, July 5).