The Sunday Tribune has learned that items were purchased in two shops in the capital using a credit card belonging to a man missing, and presumed dead, in northern Iraq. The man, an Iraqi national who lived in Geneva, went missing on 3 May last. Sixteen days later, his credit card was used to buy items in Dublin city centre.

The Dublin purchases were discovered after the man's brother, Mohamad Abu Mustafa, found unopened credit-card statements in his brother's home in Geneva.

Mustafa, who has asked that his brother not be identified, had travelled to Switzerland following his brother's disappearance.

Mustafa told the Sunday Tribune this weekend that the appearance of his brother's credit card in Dublin points to the presense of al-Qaeda in Ireland. He said that either the kidnappers had travelled to Ireland or else they had sent the card to operatives based here.

Gardai were alerted to the presence of the man's credit card in Dublin and requested that both shops hand over CCTV footage.

However, as more than one month had by that stage elapsed, the shops had destroyed the footage.

The missing man, who is 37 years old, moved to Geneva eight years ago and worked as a school caretaker. He was in the process of divorcing his wife and had travelled to Iraq only to recover marriage documents at the request of a court in Geneva.

He was in a restaurant in a town close to the Iraq-Syria border when a group of armed Sunni Muslim insurgents entered the premises.

They asked each customer for identification and forced those suspected of being of the Shi'a faith to go with them. Some 20 men were taken from the restaurant and none have been seen since. The town from which the men were kidnapped is predominantely Sunni.

Gardai currently monitor the movements of up to 40 men living in Ireland who are believed to have links with extremist Islamic organisations. In August, a leading Irishbased Islamic cleric warned that extremist philosophy was taking root in Ireland. Sheikh Shaheed Satardien warned that neither the Irish authorities nor Muslim clerics were doing enough to combat the spread of radicalism in Ireland, although other Muslim clerics strongly rejected his claims.

Gardai were yesterday unavailable for comment on the credit-card matter and the issues raised.