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Group that engineered blast has Iraqi links
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba al Alami — the group that has claimed responsibility for the Pune blast on February 13 — was formed after the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) tied up with an Iraqi militant outfit that has expertise in improvising bombs, sources at the home ministry told HT.
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba al Alami — the group that has claimed responsibility for the Pune blast on February 13 — was formed after the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) tied up with an Iraqi militant outfit that has expertise in improvising bombs, sources at the home ministry told HT.
The group was formed last year after LeT forged ties with the Al-Qaeda-backed outfit Jaish Al-Mujahideen Fi Al-Iraq (JAMFAI).
While LeT is accused of engineering and executing the 26/11 attacks, the JAMFAI is a member of the Political Council for Iraqi Resistance, a coalition of six major Sunni militant groups operating in Iraq. It has carried out several attacks on the US-led coalition forces since the 1990 Gulf War.
Officials monitoring terror groups said this LeT-JAMFAI-backed group has been created to hoodwink global agencies. “It [the new group] is an outcome of the new tie-up and crackdown [on LeT] that Pakistan was forced to undertake after the 26/11 attacks,” a home ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.
“It is worrisome because the Iraqi group is an expert in improvising bombs. It’s unique as it operates in Iraq and the Gaza strip,”he added.
“We know that a group of six JAMFAI operatives has been training LeT men at one of its camps in Pakistan,” another official said. “Some of those being trained can be from the splinter group.” Home ministry officials said the six JAMFAI trainers are from Egypt, Palestine, Somalia and Iraq.
JAMFAI gained notoriety after it made homemade cluster missiles, using canisters, and shot down a Black Hawk and an Apache attack helicopter of the US-led coalition forces in 2006 and 2007, respectively, in Iraq.
