Al-Qaida linked militant: Iran supports Sunni fighters in Iraq

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Sunni fundamentalist from Kuwait who has been linked by the United Nations and the United States to al-Qaida, said in an interview published Wednesday that Iran is supporting Sunni Arab insurgents fighting American troops in Iraq. The comments by Mubarak al-Bathali came just days after reports surfaced that three Kuwaitis recently carried out suicide bombings in Iraq, including a Kuwaiti who was a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Kuwaiti authorities have not confirmed those reports but the US military said Wednesday that a recent suicide attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was indeed carried out by a former Guantanamo detainee. The US has accused Iran - which is predominantly Shi'ite like Iraq - of supporting Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran denies this and blames the US troops presence for the violence in Iraq. The accusations by al-Bathali were a rare occasion that a Sunni fundamentalist claimed Tehran also backs Sunni extremists, linked to al-Qaida. In the battlefields of Iraq, Sunnis and Shi'ites are archenemies.