Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[seabass]

>>>Do you have estimates on Saudi funding vs. Iran & Syria?<<<


Don't know that any such statistic exists. For starters you can look at the composition by nationality of the insurgency which is 45% Saudi, 15% Syria & Lebanon and Iran apparently too small a number to register. Each of these "soldiers" are recruited, funded and transported to Iraq by their respective country. Which means Saudi Arabia is the biggest sponsor of anti US forces in Iraq since they supply and fund three times as many insurgents as Syria and Lebanon combined and probably 10 times as many as Iran.


Last week when U.S. military spokesman Bergner declared Al Qaeda in Iraq the country's No. 1 threat, he released a profile of a thwarted suicide bomber, but said he had not received clearance to reveal his nationality. The bomber was a Saudi national, the senior military officer said Saturday.

The fighter, a young college graduate whose mother was a teacher and father a professor, had been recruited in a mosque to join Al Qaeda in Iraq. He was given money for a bus ticket and a phone number to call in Syria to contact a handler who would smuggle him into Iraq.

Askari also alleged that imams at Saudi mosques call for jihad, or holy war, against Iraq's Shiites and that the government had funded groups causing unrest in Iraq's largely Shiite south.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudi15jul15,0,3132262.story?page=1