The fictitious leader of al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, has issued a new audiotape. Instead of addressing the very real problems his organization faces in Iraq--dwindling membership, defections, the Sunnis turning against them, a shrinking base of operation--"Baghdadi" (who is really an actor serving as a mouthpiece for al Qaeda in Iraq's leader Abu Ayyub al Masri) addresses the Palestinians.
In the 30-minute tape, Baghdadi/Masri threatened to use Iraq as a staging area to attack Israel and criticized Palestinian terrorist groups for failing to free Jerusalem from Israeli control. Baghdadi/Masri also singled out Hamas for "for failing to liberate the Palestinians" and called on the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas' "armed wing," to break away from the group and join al Qaeda. The AP reports:
In the latest audiotape, al-Baghdadi also threatened moderate Palestinians, saying that jihad makes "no distinctions between the infidel Jews and the renegade Palestinians ... between (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert and his criminals and (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas and his gang."
He called the state of Israel a "wicked germ sown in the (Palestinian) nation's body which should be uprooted, even if the traitors signed thousands of surrender treaties." Much of the audiotape was devoted to threats against Hamas political leaders "who betrayed the nation and turned against the blood of the martyrs," al-Baghdadi said, also saying that Hamas has been pressuring its military wing not to stage rocket attacks on Israel but to accept a truce.
Al-Baghdadi called for "opening new fronts to ease the American and Jewish pressure off the Palestinians while bolstering the fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan." He urged every "working Muslim to spare 2 dollars a month, half of it would go to our Palestinian brothers and the other half to finance other fronts."
As for attacks on Israel, al-Baghdadi said the "Islamic state in Iraq will be the cornerstone for the return of Al-Quds" and added the group was trying to use Iraq's western province of al-Anbar as a launching pad for missiles against Israel--the same way the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein fired 31 missiles against the Jewish state in the Gulf War. "The Jews and the Americans have realized this and tried by all means to prevent us from achieving this target including the fierce campaign on al-Anbar, knowing that it is easy to fire missiles on Israel from some parts there," al-Baghdadi said.
Al Masri's call to expand the fight beyond Iraq is curious as his terror group has lost significant ground in its former terror strongholds of Anbar, Diyala, Baghdad, and Salahadin provinces. Iraqi and U.S. forces are massing in Mosul in Ninewa province to take on al Qaeda remnants attempting to regroup there. Iraqi and U.S. forces are currently pursuing al Qaeda holdouts in southern Baghdad province and northern Diyala province. Anbar province, which was once the most violent province in Iraq, will soon be turned over to Iraqi provincial control. It was once thought Anbar would be the last province to be turned over to the Iraqis.
Al Masri's own commanders have called him aloof and inattentive to the needs of the organization and its fighters. He would almost certainly be better served dealing with the problems he faces inside Iraq before taking on any additional responsibilities.
