Purported tape from Qaeda figure urges attacks on Shi'ites, US
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A man claiming to be a senior Al Qaeda figure who the United States believes is operating in Iraq has released a tape calling for the country's Sunni Muslims to fight Shi'ites. The man also claims responsibility for recent high-profile attacks in Iraq.
The 33-minute audiotape appeared yesterday on a website known as a clearinghouse for militant Islamic messages. The speaker introduced himself as Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian also known as Ahmed al-Khalayleh, who is thought to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden. It was the first tape of any kind attributed to him to be made public.
The tape's authenticity could not be verified. A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in Washington, said specialists are looking into it, but it was too early to judge its authenticity.
Middle East counterterrorism officials said they also were examining the tape. One of the officials who spoke to the Associated Press in Amman, Jordan, said preliminary indications from people familiar with Zarqawi's voice and the tone of the threat suggest it is his.
Terrorism specialists say that even when such statements cannot be traced to Al Qaeda, they serve the group's cause by inspiring sympathizers.
Zarqawi's whereabouts are unknown, but the website on which the tape appeared had a transcript heading that said Zarqawi was in Iraq.
The tape appeared hours before a Jordanian court convicted Zarqawi in absentia and sentenced him to death for the 2002 killing of a US aid official in a terror conspiracy linked to Al Qaeda. US officials have offered a $10 million reward for his capture, saying he is trying to build a network of foreign militants in Iraq.
A statement circulating in Iraq and signed by anti-US groups last month said Zarqawi was killed earlier by American bombs in northern Iraq. A senior US official denied the report of Zarqawi's death.
The speaker on the tape claimed responsibility for a March 17 car bombing of a Baghdad hotel that killed seven people. The reference to the car bombing was an indication the tape was made recently.
The speaker also said that his group carried out the assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shi'ite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Hakim was killed by a car bomb in Iraq on Aug. 29.
Hakim's brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, has said Al Qaeda was behind that assassination to try to ignite sectarian conflict.
The speaker also threatened to kill General John Abizaid, head of the Central Command; L. Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq; and "their generals, soldiers, and associates."
One theme of the tape echoed that of a letter US authorities released earlier this year in which Zarqawi purportedly wrote to other Al Qaeda leaders that the best way to undermine US policy in Iraq was to turn the country's religious communities against each other.
Iraq's Shi'ite majority was suppressed under toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who favored his own Sunni community. Hussein loyalists in heavily Sunni parts of the country and foreign fighters have been blamed for the bulk of attacks against US-led forces in Iraq.
