{"id":452,"date":"2004-12-20T23:01:40","date_gmt":"2004-12-21T05:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=452"},"modified":"2004-12-20T23:02:10","modified_gmt":"2004-12-21T05:02:10","slug":"yemeni-youths-seeking-martyrdom-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"Yemeni Youths Seeking Martyrdom in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking for evidence of foreign involvement in Iraq’s troubles? There’s this pathetic tale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For weeks, Mohammed Ahmed Abdul-Rahman could only wonder where his son had gone. Then the mystery was solved in a will.<\/p>\n

“I am in Iraq, seeking martyrdom. I hope we are all forgiven,” Abdul-Rahman quoted his son’s will as reading, saying in a weekend interview that an unknown caller from Jordan had told him how to find the document three weeks after 20-year-old Hossam Abdul-Rahman vanished in September. He said he doesn’t know whether his son is dead.<\/p>\n

While only a few cases of Yemenis going to Iraq to fight have been documented, security officials say they are keeping a close eye on travelers leaving this country at the tip of the Arabian peninsula, where Islamic teaching is strong.<\/p>\n

Abdul-Rahman has taken the rare step of going public with his story, and is accusing Islamic extremists of brainwashing his university son.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although its government supports the U.S.-led war on terror, Yemen has long been a center of Islamic militancy, and has suffered several attacks and bombings in recent years. The security officials say they are trying to determine whether Yemeni individuals or groups were financing trips to Iraq or helping with travel logistics.<\/p>\n

A group of Yemeni clerics recently endorsed a call by 26 Saudi religious leaders to support the insurgency in Iraq, saying the attacks on U.S.-led forces are a legitimate form of resistance.<\/p>\n

An Islamic activist in the capital said that while he was not aware of any direct attempts by Islamic groups to recruit Yemeni fighters to go to Iraq, he was supportive of such travel.<\/p>\n

“I support it, because it is a duty. They are going to fight occupiers of Arab and Muslim land,” said Ali al-Kurdi. “Any Muslim who is hesitant in helping Iraqis is a sinner.”<\/p>\n

He said recent reports in the local media have encouraged others to make the trip.<\/p>\n

According to figures compiled by The Associated Press, there have been at least 12 cases of Yemeni men who have made their way into Iraq. The security officials said that three people suspected of trying to join the insurgency in Iraq were detained at the airport. Others are reported to have died in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Authorities watching for travelers to Iraq are focusing on those leaving for Syria and Jordan, security officials said. Yemenis don’t need visas to travel to either country, which both neighbor Iraq.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sadly, some could read this and still believe the war against radical Islamic terror should solely be about Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking for evidence of foreign involvement in Iraq’s troubles? There’s this pathetic tale. For weeks, Mohammed Ahmed Abdul-Rahman could only wonder where his son had gone. Then the mystery was solved in a will. “I am in Iraq, seeking martyrdom. I hope we are all forgiven,” Abdul-Rahman quoted his son’s will as reading, saying in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}