Thursday, September 07, 2006
New al-Qaeda tape released
Insurgency
In a portion of an audiotape broadcast on al Jazeera Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq threatened the country's Sunni politicians. He said they were treacherous and warned of more attacks against U.S.-led forces there, "You (Sunni politicians) have lied to yourself and betrayed your nation ... You claimed you will enter the political process to ease the hardship of the Sunnis, but you were their hardship," he said.
Muhajir called on Muslims to unite and asked each insurgent to kill one American in the next 15 days, saying victory was near. Muhajir, allegedly Egyptian and also believed to use the name Abu Ayyub al-Masri, told Shia Muslims to 'repent' or face the swords of the mujahideen holy fighters.
U.S. officials had no immediate comment on the tape. They said there was no reason to doubt its authenticity but cautioned that official verification could pose an extra challenge for intelligence analysts because of a dearth of earlier recordings by Muhajir.
Muhajir called on Muslims to unite and asked each insurgent to kill one American in the next 15 days, saying victory was near. Muhajir, allegedly Egyptian and also believed to use the name Abu Ayyub al-Masri, told Shia Muslims to 'repent' or face the swords of the mujahideen holy fighters.
U.S. officials had no immediate comment on the tape. They said there was no reason to doubt its authenticity but cautioned that official verification could pose an extra challenge for intelligence analysts because of a dearth of earlier recordings by Muhajir.
