"The well-dressed, slight-built mechanical engineering student from the University of Jordan said he was drawn to fight in Iraq purely by religious conviction -- not because of any link to al Qaeda or other terror organizations, and despite his intense dislike for Saddam Hussein's supporters.

'There's no way for al Qaeda to contact us, and we don't need al Qaeda to bring us here,' he said during a 90-minute interview, sitting in a tiny village on the outskirts of Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

'If you read the Koran closely, it says you must fight against infidels who occupy your country,' said the student, 25, who asked to be named in print as Abu Zobayer. 'This is clear. There is no choice.' "

Abu Zobayer said he had been inspired to fight by watching accounts of the occupation on television from the comforts of his family's living room in the Amman neighborhood of Jabal Al-Hussein.