Al-Qaeda is moving from Iraq to Syria, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a recent interview with Saudi daily Okaz.

“Al-Qaeda has started migrating from Iraq to Syria, and maybe it will migrate from Syria to another country, to Libya or to Egypt or to any region where the regime is unstable and out of control,” Maliki said.

“Yesterday, Syria was considering itself outside the circle of the terrorism problem, and today, it is in the heart of the terrorism problem,” Maliki added.

Iraq’s Deputy Interior Minister told AFP last month that jihadists were moving from Iraq to Syria and arms were being smuggled across the border to opponents of Assad’s regime, but Maliki’s remarks are the first time an Iraqi official has said specifically that Al-Qaeda is moving from Iraq to Syria.

Al-Qaeda’s front organization here, the Islamic State of Iraq, has waged a bloody campaign of attacks that has spanned years, especially targeting members of Iraq’s Shiite majority and Security Forces.

Source: Khaleej Times; Okaz; AFP