 The troop reduction announcement came as a key British figure in Iraq told how he chatted with 'furious' UK-born Muslims who had travelled to the Middle East to join the insurgency against British and American troops. Canon Andrew White, a close colleague of the ex-Archdruidbishop of Canterbury George Carey, said he spoke to the men from the West Midlands who were on their way to Baghdad to target US soldiers.
White hit the headlines when he revealed that he had warned the Foreign Office about an imminent terror attack in Britain more than a month before the failed attacks on London and Glasgow. | The cleric said the British group, around half a dozen strong, whom he met on the Jordanian-Iraqi border, were passionate about the possibility of murdering Western troops. |
The cleric said the British group, around half a dozen strong, whom he met on the Jordanian-Iraqi border, were passionate about the possibility of murdering Western troops. White, who was vicar of St Peter's Church in the Iraqi capital until two months ago - when he fled Iraq following death threats - described the group of British men he met as driven by a perceived injustice against Islam.
| Because Islam is soooooo under seige. |
His description of the radicalisation of the 'foreign fighters' follows fresh concern over extreme Islam in Europe following the arrests last week in Germany, where intelligence services said they had foiled a potentially huge terror attack. The cleric said: 'There was a sense that these men shared that the West is attacking the Islamic world and the ultimate place where that is happening is Iraq. Therefore, these men felt that they were defending their faith. They were tangibly angry and very animated.'
White, however, said the situation in Iraq was looking quite positive after a deal to end fighting between all the significant religious groups, apart from al-Qaeda, appeared to be working. |