Saddam aide in exile heads list of most wanted rebels A former Baathist based in Syria has been identified as the Mr Big behind terrorism Peter Beaumont Sunday October 17, 2004 The Observer
A senior Baath party organiser and Saddam Hussein aide, Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, has been named by western intelligence officials as one of the key figures directing the Sunni insurgency from his hiding-place in neighbouring Syria. Sources have told The Observer that Younis al-Ahmed - who has had a $1 million price tag placed on his head by the US - is one of between 20 and 50 senior Baath party figures based in Syria who, they believe, are involved in organising the guerrilla war against the US-led multi-national forces in Iraq and against the new Iraqi security forces. The naming of Ahmed comes amid growing concern that hardline factions in Syria are providing protection for cells still loyal to the old Iraqi regime who were involved in organising the flow of money, people and material for fighters in Baghdad and the Sunni triangle. This is despite Syrian moves to tighten up its border with Iraq after complaints from Washington and London that arms and foreign terrorists were crossing into Iraq. The intelligence officials believe the activities of the Syrian-based former regime members - who quickly formed into cells after the fall of Saddam - may be a considerably more significant threat to the interim government of Ayad Allawi than the more widely visible activities of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been behind a series of beheadings and suicide bombings. Before the $1m bounty was placed on his head, Ahmed, also known as 'Khadr al-Sabahi', had been travelling between Syria and the Sunni triangle to direct fighting and disburse funds. More recently, however, say sources, he has remained in Syria, choosing not to risk capture by crossing the border. The naming of Ahmed, and the allegation that he is basing himself permanently in Syria, seems designed to pressure the Syrian authorities to clamp down on the activities of ex-regime officials operating there. Little is known about Ahmed save that he was a senior regional Baath party organiser with links to Saddam's feared internal intelligence service, and there is some suggestion he may have received training in Moscow at some point. 'The main organisational strength behind the insurgency is Baathist military intelligence types who enjoy safe refuge in Syria,' said one official. 'So although Syria has clamped down on the border, they have not done anything about the planners and organisers. We are talking about 20-50 people who have access to funds, who know how to organise and use existing networks and are adept at reforming into cells.' The new assessment that former Baath party officials in hiding in Syria might, in reality, be more significant than Zarqawi and his foreign fighters, suggests an important change in emphasis in the understanding of the increasingly more violent insurgency. Zarqawi, some officials now believe, could not survive 'if he was not tolerated and exploited by the old Baathists'. The claim that Ahmed is continuing to direct the insurgency from inside Syria is a further embarrassment for the Anglophile President Bashar Assad, who has been keen to modernise his country. It follows an number of incidents of mortar-fire across the Syrian border towards US positions inside Iraq, most recently on Friday. And the disclosure of Ahmed's role from Syria comes amid growing concern in Baghdad and western capitals over the increasing evidence of destabilising external interference in Iraq's affairs. Both Arab and western diplomats admit that there is evidence of arms, money and fighters coming into Iraq from Saudi Arabia but that it is almost impossible to quantify at what level. Indeed, Saudi officials are as concerned with weapons coming into Saudi. The Saudis are also worried that a failed state in Iraq would allow terrorists to set up camps close to its vast border to target the kingdom. Officials believe Saudi money is helping to finance the jihadist groups in Iraq - like Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group - but are not certain what amounts are involved. And while UK forces have been brought in to help seal the smuggling routes in the desert areas that border Jordan, control of the Iraq-Saudi border area is complicated by the huge distances, awkward terrain and difficult helicopter flying conditions. Iranian factions, centred around the Republican Guards and religious leaders in Qom, have also been accused of financing of Iraqi Shia political and militia groups including the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr with the aim of 'pricking the US'. The disclosure, however, that it is largely regime officials who are leading and funding the insurgency, tapping into a widespread discontent among many Iraqis, will raise questions again over whether the resistance is conforming in large part to a plan prepared before the fall of Baghdad. 'The idea that it was organised before the war is beginning to reassert itself,' says Dr Rosemary Hollis of Chatham House. 'There is a thesis that is gaining some currency with Arab nationalists that this definitely required a lot of preparation. There is also an increasingly long-term view, that they are playing a long game and, with a properly managed resistance, this is a conflict that can be won and that the Americans can be forced to go home.'
