Al-Zawahiri Claims Al Qaeda in Iraq ‘Broke the Back’ of U.S. Military

Posted on April 28, 2006

CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda’s No. 2 said the terror network’s branch in Iraq had “broken the back” of the U.S. military with hundreds of homicide bombings, in a video posted Saturday that was the latest in a string of new messages by al Qaeda’s leaders.

The video by Ayman al-Zawahiri, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, came within the same week as an audiotape by al Qaeda’s top leader Usama bin Laden and a video by the head of al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq — a volley of messages by the group’s most prominent figures.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian militant believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan, also denounced the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as “traitors” and called on Muslims to rise up to “confront them.”

He said that U.S. and British forces in Iraq had bogged down in Iraq and “have achieved nothing but loss, disaster and misfortune.”

Al Qaeda in Iraq “alone has carried out 800 martyrdom operations (homicide attacks) in 3 years, besides the sacrifices of the other mujahedeen, and this is what has broken the back of American in Iraq,” al-Zawahiri said.

The video was first obtained by IntelCenter, a U.S. contractor that provides counterterrorism intelligence services to the U.S. government

U.S. counterterrorism officials were aware of the video and analyzing it to glean whatever they could from the message, two officials said on condition of anonymity.

One of the officials, who would not be identified in compliance with office policy, said it was part of al Qaeda’s ongoing propaganda blitz to demonstrate they remain relevant.

I don’t know if anyone else is thinking about this, but the timing of all these new tapes is quite coordinated, and organized. What that means is up for grabs.

Also see Gateway Pundit

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Comments

2 Responses to “Al-Zawahiri Claims Al Qaeda in Iraq ‘Broke the Back’ of U.S. Military”

Draven32 on April 29th, 2006 12:48 am

They aren’t winning on the battlefield, so maybe they are trying (dis)information warfare again?
kerwin_brown on April 29th, 2006 10:34 am

The seem to be doing good in the U.S. Their allies are planning on a protest in Washington.