June 3, 2002	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21,1423

WASHINGTON, June 2: Up to 2,000 people have left the United States over the past 20 years to fight in Islamic militant groups around the world, according to the weekly US News and World Report.

The figure includes foreign-born US permanent residents, as well as US citizens, according to the magazine, which bases its information on interviews with past and present US and foreign intelligence officials, Islamic militants, and court documents.

The US fighters have joined radical Islamic groups fighting in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Bosnia — including groups that Washington considers terrorist organizations.

Most who have joined the groups are Arab-Americans, but they also include US-born African Americans, whites, and at least one Puerto Rican, according to the magazine’s Monday issue.

A Pakistani intelligence source told US News that up to 400 US recruits were given military training in Pakistani and Afghan jihad camps since 1989.

The most notorious case is that of John Walker Lindh, a 21-year-old who left his comfortable life in northern California to go to a religious school in Yemen, and eventually joined the Taliban, where he was captured by US operatives during fighting in Afghanistan.—AFP