Zarqawi: West Waging 'Crusader' War
In a rare video posted Tuesday on the Internet, al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi accused the West and the United States of waging a "crusader" war against Islam but said Muslim holy warriors were standing firm.
He also said the recent formation of a new government in Baghdad was an attempt to help the United States get out of what he called the dilemma it now faces in Iraq.
"When the enemy entered into Iraq, their aim was to control Iraq and the area," al-Zarqawi said in the video. "But here we have been fighting them for the last three years."
In the past, al-Zarqawi has made statements only through audiotapes posted on the Web, although photos of him obtained by the U.S. government have been widely circulated.
The video opens with an appeal to all followers of Islam in various areas of Iraq, followed by a brief prayer and an appeal to the public, CBS News reports.
"I am addressing you with a talk that contains no deceptions, in the hope that I may gain from you, listening ears and discerning hearts; for the leader never lies to his folk," al-Zarqawi said.
In the video, al-Zarqawi, who wears a beard and mustache, sat dressed in black, with ammunition cases hung from his neck and an automatic rifle propped against the wall to his right.
of al-Zarqawi's video appearance and
Watch imagesHe wore a black scarf wrapped on his head and around his neck, while the black flag of his group, al Qaeda in Iraq, was superimposed on the screen. In another scene, he was shown sitting on the floor with four other men, all wearing black masks.
In a third scene, al-Zarqawi could be seen in a desert, holding a heavy automatic rifle as if ready to fire.
The video came just two days after a highly publicized call to arms by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden — on an audiotape played on Arab television — that encouraged Muslims to support his group in its war with the West.
It also came a day after a triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people, including 21 Egyptians and three foreigners.
In addition, it has been just days since Iraq named a new prime minister and made progress toward forming a new government. In that sense, the video could be an attempt by the terrorist leader to raise his visibility at a time when U.S. officials are hailing the Iraqi political process as a setback to the insurgents.
But al-Zarqawi, in the video, says insurgent and Iraqi fighter setbacks are having effect, also, according to a CBS News translation.
"They sacrificed their lives and their properties and even their honor, and they endured the fierce attack militarily, economically and through the media, not for anything, but for the sake of defending you and defending your religion and your children, because of your concern over your sanctities," al-Zarqawi said on tape. "So Allah has dispersed their ranks, dissipated their staff and their defeat has become apparent to everyone that can see."
It was not possible to confirm the authenticity of the video, but it was posted on a Web site that al-Zarqawi's group and other groups have often used to post Internet messages.
Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, has claimed responsibility for some of the most high-profile suicide bombings in Iraq, and also for a score of other attacks including hotel bombings in November in Jordan.
But in recent months, al-Zarqawi had sharply lowered his profile, halting his group's Internet claims and joining a clearinghouse group of other radical groups. Some other radical leaders had said he had been shunted aside and told to lower his profile.
In January, al-Zarqawi's group said in a Web statement that it had joined five other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahedeen Shura Council, or Consultative Council of Holy Warriors.
Since then, al-Zarqawi's group had stopped issuing its own statements, a sharp contrast to its previous frequent postings, and al-Zarqawi had not issued a Web audiotape since January.
In the video posted Tuesday, the logo of the Shura Council appeared on the screen as al-Zarqawi spoke, even as the black flag of his specific group, al Qaeda in Iraq, appeared in the corner.
Among other attacks he has been blamed for, U.S. officials believe al-Zarqawi personally beheaded American businessman Nicholas Berg, whose savage killing was shown on a videotape distributed by al Qaeda in Iraq in May 2004.
It was the first of a series of videotaped decapitations of Westerners in Iraq, which ended after widespread complaints from Muslims who were sympathetic to the insurgency but objected to the video beheadings.
Some experts have long cautioned, however, that al-Zarqawi's role may have been exaggerated and that some of the attacks claimed by his group — or that U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed on him — may have been carried out by others.
Iraq's insurgency has always been made up of several disparate groups, and some of them, including Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Islamic Army of Iraq, have been nearly as violent as al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Jordanian-born militant, however, seized most of the attention because of his relentless Internet propaganda efforts, the brutality of his attacks — including the hostage beheading videos put on the Web — and a series of suicide car bombings that targeted mostly Shiites.