KUWAIT CITY, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Kuwait's leading daily al-Rai al-Aam said Monday there are an estimated 7,000 armed Muslim extremists in Iraq set on combating U.S.-led multinational forces.
The paper quoted Islamic sources close to Muslim militant groups in Iraq as saying efforts were under way to unify the various Islamic groups in that country under a joint leadership, or Shura (consultative), council.
The sources said Abu Misaab Zarqawi, the suspected leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, broke away from the network after Osama bin Laden failed to give him the green light to hit at Iraqi police and the Shiites.
They said Zarqawi initially fell out with bin Laden after leaving Afghanistan and he had relocated to Iraq two years before the Baath regime of Saddam Hussein was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in April 2003.
