Poll: Islamic Militants Support Expansion of Jihad in Iraq to Saudi Arabia
By Evan Kohlmann
An informal poll conducted by the notorious Muntada al-Ansar webforum indicates that a large number of militant Islamists are enthusiastically in favor of immediately expanding Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's current jihad in Iraq to the neighboring Kingdom of Saudi Arabia--where many of Iraq's foreign fighters originate from. The al-Ansar webforum--known for distributing messages and videos directly on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorist leaders--asked participants the following voluntary poll question: "Do you support the jihad in Al-Jazeera [Saudi Arabia] at the current time? Or instead, following the [end of] the jihad in Iraq?" Of approximately 90 respondents to the poll, 72% of them voted for "jihad in [Saudi Arabia] given the current situation", whereas only 25 of those voting (28%) felt that the war in Iraq should supercede Al-Qaida operations in the Saudi Kingdom.
Though the results of the poll are not entirely surprising, this is yet another sign of the impending "bleedout" effect from the conflict in Iraq. Given the responses of those who participated in the poll, there is a startling degree of enthusiasm for additional transnational terrorist attacks beyond the borders of Iraq, such as the recent failed rocket barrage in Aqaba, Jordan aimed at U.S. military vessels and claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It should be noted that several prominent members of the al-Ansar web forum have allegedly traveled to Iraq and volunteered as suicide bombers on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.