Grim's Hall

Al Qaeda:

Well, our old friends turn up in the oddest places. I began wondering if al Qaeda was behind the Najaf bombing last night, after I saw this report (credited to CNN--I've seen it several places, but can't find it on the CNN website) that Hezbollah and al Qaeda have allied in Iraq. The reason this is interesting in terms of Najaf is this bit:

One of the most wanted terrorists on the FBI's list may have forged an alliance with al Qaeda members against U.S. forces in Iraq, according to U.S. and coalition intelligence officials.

These officials think Imad Mugniyah -- suspected in the Beirut bombings in the early 1980s -- may have joined forces with an al Qaeda suspect, Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, to threaten U.S. troops in Iraq. Both men are believed to be hiding in Iran.

Middle East experts and intelligence officials in several countries say Mugniyah, a Lebanese Shiite Muslim, runs the international terrorist apparatus of Lebanese Hezbollah and that he works as a subcontractor for Iranian intelligence, often using Iran as a safe haven.

The bombing yesterday was highly professional. It was a bomb constructed by someone who knew what kind of explosives he would need to be sure of killing his target; it managed to, most reports suggest, be planted in al-Hakim's own vehicle, or one just by it. Bombs of that sophistication are not the work of ex-Army people. Mugniyah, though, he knows how. The bombing of the US embassy in Beruit was a masterwork of that murderous trade. Master bombers are blessedly hard to find, and Mugniyah's group is among the best in the world.

So now four men have been arrested and, according to reports, have confessed to being with al Qaeda. This may or may not be true, of course: why trust the word of terrorists? Still, it is one more thing to watch in the developing story in Najaf.