Al-Qaida release video of attack on alleged military position

Al-Qaida today posted a video showing what it claimed to be an attack by its fighters seizing a US-Afghan post in southern Afghanistan, in what experts said was a step-up in the terror group’s increasingly sophisticated propaganda.

The 24-minute video, with an English narration apparently by an American al Qaida member – depicts the alleged attack from beginning to end – showing fighters scouting out the base, planning the attack, carrying out a night battle, then being “welcomed as liberators” by people depicted as local Afghans.

“It certainly has an element of being staged, but there is a difference from previous videos of attacks on coalition troops,” said terrorist expert Evan Kohlman of the US-based globalterroralert.com.

“It purports to show the ’complete story’ of the attack ... including the ’joy’ of ordinary Afghans liberated by the Taliban,” Kohlman said. “Of course, the Afghans in the video may be just Taliban themselves.”

The 24-minute video carries the logo of the al Qaida media company, as-Sahab, and was posted on an Islamic website known for hosting extremist material.

It was titled “Holocaust of the Americans in the land of Khorasan, the Islamic emirate: Capture of an American post, Arghandab.” Khorasan refers to Afghanistan, and Arghandab is an area north-east of the southern city of Kandahar.

The tape begins with the deputy leader of al Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, ridiculing US President George Bush’s claim to have deprived al-Qaida of a safe haven in Afghanistan as a “barefaced lie.”

Al-Zawahri, who speaks in Arabic with an English translation in subtitles, seems to be referring to a Bush speech on January 10 when the president said that US forces “took away al Qaida’s safe haven in Afghanistan – and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq.”

The rest of the tape is narrated in English by a man with an American accent, a voice that resembles that of Adam Gadahn, an American who is accused of joining al Qaida. He has appeared previously in al Qaida videos, using the nickname of Azzam the American.

The footage shows what is said to be the mujahideen reconnoitring the target, a group of mudbrick buildings, where trucks are seen moving. Then in wooded area, a masked commander speaking Arabic outlines the battle plan with a mock-up of the compound made of dirt piles and stones.

It shows a US helicopter flying overhead and a fighter trying to camouflage himself under dried grass.

“The reconnaissance operation is not free of danger,” the narrator says theatrically. But the fighter does not work with any urgency. He talks to the cameraman, who does not take cover himself.

Then it shows insurgents firing at the target, tracer bullets cross the sky, fire is returned and there are explosions of what are said to be rocket-propelled grenades.

The narrator then says that “after a fierce battle, the mujahideen begin their retreat from the zone of operations.” A fighter is quoted as saying: “We retreated after about 45 minutes of fighting.”

Next, the video shows the compound in daylight, as insurgents walk through it. It is not clear what happened to the American and Afghan troops who were there, and it is not clear how long it has been abandoned. The footage shows graffiti on the walls from US soldiers.

An Afghan with a white beard and black turban tells the camera that local residents suffered under the foreign “devils” and how the “people are very happy about the coming of the Taliban.”

Kohlman said there were “reasons to doubt this was a great victory” as the al Qaida claimed, Kohlman said.

“It is very likely that this base was voluntarily abandoned by coalition and Afghan forces, and that this (tape) is al-Qaida trying to capitalise on a coalition tactical retreat,” he said.

When asked about the video, the district chief of Arghandab, Fazel Bari, told The AP that the only recent clash in that area was last month when suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO and Afghan force on the road between Arghandab and Qalat.

Bari said the Nato and Afghan troops suffered no casualties, but they detained one man after the battle, which ended with the Taliban retreating.

The video was first obtained by IntelCenter, a US group that tracks extremist messages. IntelCenter said the tape represented a “significant step up” in al Qaida’s video marketing.

Kohlman, who has tracked al Qaida, said that its “propaganda has evolved.”

“They are saying: Not only are we able to cause casualties but we are conquering territories and we are being welcomed as liberators, this is a war that will eventually be won by the Taliban,” he said.

The Taliban now seek to emphasise the idea that they are not just an infidel-fighting guerrilla but are actually controlling territory, he said. In that aspect, the propaganda harks back to the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, when the Taliban were embraced as the country’s liberators, Kohlman added.

The tape comes as the United States and Britain deploy more troops to Afghanistan, after the worst year of insurgency-related violence since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.