al Qaida recruiting illegal immigrants in Europe

From AKI

Algiers, 4 March (AKI) - Al-Qaeda was seeking to recruit illegal immigrants in Europe for potential suicide attacks in Italy, Spain and France, an Algerian daily has claimed. A report in the daily Ennahar on Tuesday said Al-Qaeda had begun trying to recruit illegal immigrants in Europe, because it had not been able to find new recruits in Arab countries following elections in the United States and Israel.

"Two men, a Pakistani and a Bosnian offered me a proposal. They asked me to collaborate with Al-Qaeda in exchange for money," said Ahmad al-Shalafi, an Algerian immigrant who spoke to the daily by telephone after being approached by alleged Al-Qaeda officials.

"I would have had to recruit people from the local Islamic and African communities to carry out a suicide attack," he said.

Shalafi is an illegal Algerian immigrant who lives in Spain and works as a security official at a nightclub using fake documents and presenting himself as a Moroccan immigrant. He said he migrated illegally to Spain in 2001 after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in a makeshift boat.