WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) A new 22-man list of the United States "Most Wanted Terrorists" highlights Irans alleged links to guerrilla groups more than any other nations apart from Afghanistan, US experts have said.
Of those on the list, as many as seven are widely thought to be in Iran, compared with one in Iraq and the rest in Afghanistan, according to Vince Cannistraro, Chief of CIA Counter Terrorist Operations from 1988 to September 1990.
In response to hijacked plane attacks on America, the United States has launched what it calls a war on terrorism against groups it believes have a global reach as well as nations that help them.
Patrick Clawson, Director of Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, agreed that seven on the new list, broken down by five major attacks on US interests in the 1980s and the 1990s, may be in Iran and one Abdul Rahman Yasin in Iraq.
"The list contains a substantial number of terrorists who are suspected to be in Iran," said Kenneth Katzman, an expert on Islamic guerrilla groups at the Nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
"It does not suggest to me that the administration, with this list, is laying out a case for pursuing Iraq" in the next phase of the multi-pronged, US-led military campaign launched Sunday in Afghanistan, which protects the prime suspect for the hijack attacks, he said.
Some US opinion leaders have urged the administration to make Iraqi president Saddam Hussein the next target in what president George W.
Bush has vowed will be a "sustained, comprehensive, relentless" campaign.
The administration put the UN Security Council on notice on Tuesday that the United States, acting in self-defense after the Sept.
11 attacks killed about 5,600 people, may take "further actions with respect to other organizations and other states."