Newsvine - Expert: Iraq New Epicenter for Al-Qaida LONDON — Iraq has become the new epicenter for al-Qaida cells waging holy war against the West, one of the world’s foremost experts on terror said Tuesday. If the U.S.-led coalition forces pulled out of Iraq now, attacks in Europe would increase and troops would have to go back in two to three years, said Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. "The epicenter has shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq," he told a conference of business leaders on how to prepare for terror threats.