The Karbala connection: where bombs, Afghan heroin and Islam meet

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s Al-Qaeda terror group is financing a wave of car and suicide bombings in Iraq (news - web sites) through the Afghanistan (news - web sites) narcotics trade, Iraqi police and coalition military officials have told AFP.


The drug business has bankrolled the recruitment of local Iraqis into the ranks of a growing Islamic extremist movement that now counts up to 200 cells around the country, according to the sources.


Karbala police say some of the suicide bombers are doped up on volatile mix of Islam and anti-psychotic pills when they go on their deadly missions.


"Drugs are entering into Iraq through Al-Qaeda. They are using the revenues to finance their network," said Karbala investigative judge Ahmed al-Hillali, who has been tracking the clandestine world of terror that has carried out two major attacks on Karbala since December. snip

"First it (drugs) spreads from Afghanistan to Iran then it's smuggled through the pilgrims. No one searches the pilgrims when they enter Iraq," said police Colonel Kareem Sultan, the deputy commander for Karbala.

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