A VERITABLE foreign legion of Muslim fighters willing to sacrifice their lives in the jihad against America are being lured to Iraq from Europe by recruiters promising martyrdom and fame.

A year ago Europe’s intelligence chiefs dismissed claims that Mujahidin fighters from the West posed any serious threat, but now agencies such as MI6 and the French secret service, Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), are taking the matter seriously.

They have reinforced their strength in Baghdad to assess how many of their nationals have slipped into Iraq, and to identify and close down the networks that recruit and dispatch the young volunteers. British officials estimate that up to 100 recruits have gone to Iraq from the UK since the 2003 invasion.

A police raid in Moss Side in Manchester this week on the terraced home of Idris Bazis was evidence of the second suicide bomber from Britain to have died in attacks against coalition targets in Iraq.

Security officials concede that there are likely to be more whose identities are not known.

Often the terror groups are reluctant to reveal the identities of their foreign volunteers because it gives Western security agencies a chance to track down their network of associates still operating in Europe. The French authorities know of at least three of their nationals killed in such attacks, and of five more men who died fighting with insurgent groups.

Three men from the 19th arrondissement in Paris, on the city’s northeastern rim, have died in Iraq, two more have been captured by US troops and another eleven have been arrested by French police.

One young militant, who is Paris-born and of Arab origin, is now said to command an insurgent group of 25 foreigners. Some have joined the queue of those wanting to undertake suicide missions.

The French authorities have carried out a number of raids to cripple the alleged recruitment network. There have also been arrests in recent weeks in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany to break up alleged recruitment networks.

Times Recommends

• Would you live on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall?
• Wish you were here, says Iraq tourist board
• Russian policeman’s corruption plea to Putin