The family of Sheikh Omar Jummah had no idea he was in Iraq until a midnight caller told them he had died fighting alongside al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Omar, 35, a Jordanian like Zarqawi, fought for a year with other Islamic militants battling to expel U.S.-led forces from Iraq. But he kept his family in the dark. "He told us he was leaving for Saudi Arabia to take up a teaching job," said his 64-year-old father Youssef Jummah. Jummah recalled that his son was deeply religious and had memorized the Koran by the age of 13. But no one in his family expected that his piety would drive him to militancy.
| "No, no! Certainly not! Not our boy!" |
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of foreign hostages and some of the bloodiest suicide attacks in postwar Iraq. His followers are believed to form a hard core within a wider insurgency by Iraqi nationalists and Sunni Muslim fighters loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. With their religious fervor and ideological commitment, the U.S. military says Arab volunteers like Omar are behind some of the most audacious and lethal attacks.
| "Other than that, he was a good boy..." |
Like the other Jordanian militants who kept their "jihad" plans secret, kick-boxing champion Bahaa Yahya, 23, told his family he was going to a tournament in Beirut. When he arrived in Iraq, Yahya phoned his family to disclose where he had hidden a letter to be read after he died. "I am in need of the prayers of my mother and brothers and to tell them the world is fighting our religion," Yahya said in the letter which his family opened after his death in September. He had been fighting U.S. troops in Falluja, Iraq's most rebellious town, from where Zarqawi was thought to have been holed up, directing the insurgency.
| Just more cannon fodder expended. Cheap, and easily replaced... |
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