DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ/LIBYA: GADDAFI SON LINKED TO BLASTS IN IRAQ

Gaddafi son linked to blasts in Iraq

A SON of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for explosions in northern Iraq, says a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qa'ida.

At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded last Wednesday when a huge blast destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The next day, a suicide bomber killed the provincial police chief and two other officers as they surveyed the blast site.

Colonel Jubair Rashid Naief, a police official in Anbar province, said the attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who slipped into the country several months ago from Syria. He said the regiment, which is working with al-Qa'ida in Iraq, was supported by Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, 36, eldest son of the Libyan leader.

"I am sure of what I am talking about, and it is documented," Colonel Naief said, adding he was "100per cent sure" of the younger Gaddafi's role in the terror group.

A man who answered the phone at Mr Gaddafi's office in Tripoli said he was unavailable for comment.

Colonel Naief said his information about the Seifaddin Regiment and the younger Gaddafi's purported role came from "reliable sources" maintained by his Anbar Awakening Council within the ranks of al-Qa'ida in Mosul and elsewhere. He said the information was passed to the US military two or three months ago.

"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months," Colonel Naief said of the Seifaddin Regiment. "Since then, they have taken up positions in the city and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations." The AAC is an alliance of Sunni tribes in the western province that turned against al-Qa'ida and began working with US forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop in violence in Anbar, once the main base for the insurgents.

Many of the council's fighters are believed to have been insurgents until they began receiving money from the US to turn their guns on their former extremist allies.

The US military did not comment on Colonel Naief's claim.

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1) Gaddafi son linked to blasts in Iraq