Qaeda defectors claw way back into Iraq mainstream

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

DHULUIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — Last month Al-Qaeda fighters Abdul Rahman Mohammed and Ahmed Ali laid down their arms after nearly four years of fighting US soldiers in Iraq.

The two young men and hundreds like them from Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups in largely Sunni Arab Salaheddin province surrendered under an amnesty offered by US and Iraqi militaries with a pledge to begin a new civilian life.

Wearing a light brown traditional Arab dishdasha, a clean shaven Mohammed, 22, spoke calmly of wanting to kill US troops as his blood boiled with anger at their presence in his homeland.

"I don't remember how many firefights we had with the Americans because there were many. I don't remember how many American vehicles we blew up," Mohammed told AFP in his hometown of...