[Crvena zvezda]

FYROM paper on Iraqi group reportedly setting up "Balkan Muslim army"
March 25, 2003
Text of report by Hristo Ivanovski: "Former Iraqi officers on a covert mission in FYROM?", by FYROM newspaper Dnevnik on 25 March

Some 400 officers of the Iraqi army have apparently been deployed in the countries of the Balkans to carry out attacks on US and UK facilities and diplomats. Dnevnik has learnt that it has not been ruled out that other countries that are part of the coalition against Saddam Husayn might also be targets of their interest. According to reports from the US State Department and the British Foreign Office, their embassies in Skopje were closed as they received "serious threats" of attacks. According to these sources, there is a group of six Iraqis that is preparing terrorist actions. Yesterday the US embassy resumed its regular activities, while the UK embassy is expected to reopen today after its closure on Thursday [20 March].
Yesterday the Interior Ministry neither confirmed nor denied this report of the presence of an Iraqi terrorist group in the country.

The report of the presence of such a group is still merely speculation and the Interior Ministry is unable to confirm it or deny it. The ministry has taken certain security measures and has tightened the security outside certain embassies, while it is also engaged in activities of heightened alert and monitoring, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Mirjana Kontevska said.

The police have enhanced the protection of the US and UK embassies and of some other countries' diplomatic offices. Border control and inland security have also been tightened, especially the control of foreign nationals.

Dnevnik has learnt that former officers of the Iraqi army have been operating in FYROM, Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo already for several months together with members of Al-Qa'idah, terrorists from Saudi Arabia, and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Pazdaran, which has even set up a logistics office in Skopje. Western sources have indicated that the Iraqi officers, who were once trained in the former Yugoslav Army, and Al-Qa'idah terrorists are working on a project for the formation of a "Balkan Muslim army", which has already been joined by around 20,000 fighters, veterans, and "fresh blood". Their activities in FYROM are supported by Albanians and are carried out in strict secrecy as clandestine actions, mainly under the veil of mosque activities. It is in mosques that the prospective fighters of this Muslim army, which is financed by Saudi Arabia, are recruited, primarily young boys at the age of 15 or 16. As soon as they complete their first training course, they receive wages of 500 to 700 dollars a month.

According to security sources, the Iraqi officers are responsible for military training, and the Al-Qa'idah members for terrorist activities. The sources have indicated that the young members of the "Balkan Jihad" have already joined schools for military pilots in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.