| For the first time, the financing of a major Al Qaida-aligned insurgency group has been traced. Jordanian authorities have succeeded in tracing and capturing a financier of the Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi. Officials said a Bedouin tribesman was identified and convicted on charges of fundraising for Al Zarqawi, deemed the most lethal insurgent in Iraq. The financier was identified as Bilal Mansour Hiyari, 34, a resident of the Jordanian city of Salt and confidant of Al Zarqawi, who is also a Jordanian national. On Sunday, Hiyari was convicted of fundraising for a terrorist group and sentenced to six months in prison. Officials said this was the first time that an Al Zarqawi financier has been identified and captured. Over the last year, the United States and other partners in the military coalition in Iraq have sought to locate Tawhid funding. |