"It's possible to join different groups: a big Turkish group, an Arab group (the smallest of all the groups), a group of Uighurs from . . . northwest China, the biggest group," the trainee, Walid Othmani, said during an interrogation by French police after his arrest in January of this year.
Othmani, who is of Tunisian descent, said he trained with a mixed group of Arabs and North Africans that was led by an Egyptian and numbered 300 to 500 fighters.
The Uzbeks, meanwhile, totaled about 3,000, according to Othmani's confession. He said a Turkish contingent of 1,000 to 2,000 was commanded by a Turk.
It's not clear how precise his estimates are, investigators say. Some numbers seem accurate, others larger than expected based on previous intelligence. Overall, his account is regarded as credible, investigators say.
The mix of nationalities may reflect the future in the making. Yazid, Al Qaeda's veteran financial chief, runs the network's day-to-day operations while Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, devote themselves largely to avoiding capture, officials say. Yazid used his recent audio message to make an urgent appeal for money.
"And here we, in the battlefield in Afghanistan, are lacking a lot of money and a weakness in operations because of lack of money, and many mujahedin are absent from jihad because of lack or absence of money," he said, according to a translation by Kohlmann's organization, the NEFA Foundation.
As Al Qaeda weathers hard times, the appeal geared to Turkic speakers suggests that audience is seen as a source of rejuvenation, experts said.
"They are attempting to broaden their appeal, and it certainly looks like an instinctual competitive reaction to the sudden flourishing of Turkic-speaking jihadi groups in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater," Kohlmann said. "It's an evolving recruitment and financing market for them, and they don't want to be left out in the cold."
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rotella@latimes.com
