Al-Qaeda Shifting Tactics to Iraq

Via Yahoo! News -

LONDON - Al-Qaida is changing its tactics and new strategies are needed to combat it, the former head of Britain's intelligence agency said Tuesday, warning that Iraq has become the new epicenter for terror cells in exporting radical ideology.

"We need to think rather carefully about where we go now — from where we are now — in confronting the consequences of 9/11," Richard Dearlove told a business conference on terrorist threats.

"Our strategy — strategic position — in sum is weak," he added. "A strategic rethink is probably the point that we have now reached."

Another al-Qaida expert told the conference that Iraq is becoming a "Disneyland" for the terror group — the new focus of its "holy war" against the West.

"The epicenter has shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq," said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.

He warned that if U.S.-led coalition forces pulled out of Iraq now, attacks in Europe would increase and troops would have to return in two to three years.