Meet The New Jihad

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Kata'ib has drawn new members from the ranks of former detainees at Abu Ghraib. Scores of men like Abu Mustafa, a former military officer, say they spent their time in jail studying Salafi Islam and receiving lessons in jihad from bearded Iraqis and detainees who came from places like Syria and Saudi Arabia. Abu Mustafa claims that cellblocks have secretly become mini-madrasahs, or religious schools. "We studied hard every day and often into the night," he says. The U.S. has released hundreds of detainees in recent weeks, supplying the insurgency with a fresh crop of jihadists. "There was one man who didn't even know how to pray," says Abu Mustafa. "When he got out, he was like an imam and is one of our most ferocious fighters on the front line."

THE FUTURE OF JIHAD

The U.S. does not believe that the insurgency has an organized command structure; even al-Zarqawi's network seems to be less a military unit than a decentralized terrorist operation. Iraqi commanders say the shape of the network shifts constantly, with no formal membership of any one group. The amorphous nature of the resistance also means it has the potential to spread more easily into the Sunni heartland, where U.S. forces are still struggling to maintain order. Fallujah is already a terrorist sanctuary; insurgent sources say the safe haven is set to expand into Baqubah and Samarra.

With U.S. forces stretched thin and Iraqi security forces still months away from being able to assert authority, the fear is that the al-Zarqawi-led jihadists may carve out their own fiefdoms across the country from which they can recruit and train zealots to join their struggle--a version of the northwest province in Pakistan, which al-Qaeda has turned into a safe haven. The insurgents' aspirations are growing. Abdullah, a midlevel leader of Kata'ib, says he's happy U.S. troops are staying in Iraq: it means he can be part of the jihad. Asked what the jihadists will do if U.S. forces finally pull out, one of Abdullah's comrades offers this answer: "We will follow them to the U.S." With reporting by Massimo Calabresi/Washington and Aparisim Ghosh and Vivienne Walt/Baghdad