Al-Qaida tells terror chief to kill people less brutally
Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Saturday October 8, 2005
The Guardian
Al-Qaida has urged its commander in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to shoot rather than behead hostages because brutal executions alienate the Muslim world, according to American officials.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Islamist group's second-in-command, allegedly told his colleague that a bullet was as deadly as a knife and would not repulse so many potential supporters.
The advice was included in a 6,000-word letter intercepted by American forces in Iraq in July. Excerpts were made public this week after the Bush administration learned that US television networks had obtained a partial description of the contents.
Officials said the letter, a treatise outlining a strategy for a global jihad, had been authenticated from multiple sources and gave a rare insight into the relationship between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and its affiliate in Iraq.
If verified, the letter suggests tension over Zarqawi's tactic of disseminating videos of decapitations on the internet.
Such brutality alienated Muslims who might otherwise endorse extremism, said Zawahiri, an Egyptian believed to have helped plan the September 11 attacks. US officials did not provide the exact quote but said it was in the form of a polite rebuke.
The letter cautioned that bombing Shia Muslim civilians also eroded support but it predicted that a clash between Shias and Arab Sunnis in Iraq was inevitable.
A four-stage plan was outlined: expel American forces from Iraq, extend Islamist control over as much of Iraq as possible, export jihad to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria and, finally, wage war against Israel.
The letter's partial publication came on the anniversary of the death of Ken Bigley, a 62-year-old British civil engineer captured in Baghdad and beheaded last year by Zarqawi's group.
His 87-year mother, Lil, yesterday spoke of her anguish. "I thought the longer they kept him the more hope there was he would be set free. So it was a bombshell when the news came that he was dead. It was a horrific death. It never leaves me and it never will."
The family had feared the worst. "The waiting was terrible. We lived on hope, trusting God that everything would be OK. The house was filled with family but we were all so sad. It was horrendous."
Mrs Bigley felt haunted by the murder. "As soon as my head hits the pillow I think: What did they do to you, Ken?" she said. "It was a very cruel death. Ken didn't deserve that."
The family hope one day to recover the engineer's remains and bury him with his son Paul, who died aged 17 in a car accident in 1986.
There have been no recent high-profile decapitations but headless bodies are regularly found across Iraq. The latest victims, two Iraqi men said to have been spies for the Americans, were found in southern Baghdad this week.
Link Here
Saturday October 8, 2005
The Guardian
Al-Qaida has urged its commander in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to shoot rather than behead hostages because brutal executions alienate the Muslim world, according to American officials.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Islamist group's second-in-command, allegedly told his colleague that a bullet was as deadly as a knife and would not repulse so many potential supporters.
The advice was included in a 6,000-word letter intercepted by American forces in Iraq in July. Excerpts were made public this week after the Bush administration learned that US television networks had obtained a partial description of the contents.
Officials said the letter, a treatise outlining a strategy for a global jihad, had been authenticated from multiple sources and gave a rare insight into the relationship between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and its affiliate in Iraq.
If verified, the letter suggests tension over Zarqawi's tactic of disseminating videos of decapitations on the internet.
Such brutality alienated Muslims who might otherwise endorse extremism, said Zawahiri, an Egyptian believed to have helped plan the September 11 attacks. US officials did not provide the exact quote but said it was in the form of a polite rebuke.
The letter cautioned that bombing Shia Muslim civilians also eroded support but it predicted that a clash between Shias and Arab Sunnis in Iraq was inevitable.
A four-stage plan was outlined: expel American forces from Iraq, extend Islamist control over as much of Iraq as possible, export jihad to Egypt, Lebanon and Syria and, finally, wage war against Israel.
The letter's partial publication came on the anniversary of the death of Ken Bigley, a 62-year-old British civil engineer captured in Baghdad and beheaded last year by Zarqawi's group.
His 87-year mother, Lil, yesterday spoke of her anguish. "I thought the longer they kept him the more hope there was he would be set free. So it was a bombshell when the news came that he was dead. It was a horrific death. It never leaves me and it never will."
The family had feared the worst. "The waiting was terrible. We lived on hope, trusting God that everything would be OK. The house was filled with family but we were all so sad. It was horrendous."
Mrs Bigley felt haunted by the murder. "As soon as my head hits the pillow I think: What did they do to you, Ken?" she said. "It was a very cruel death. Ken didn't deserve that."
The family hope one day to recover the engineer's remains and bury him with his son Paul, who died aged 17 in a car accident in 1986.
There have been no recent high-profile decapitations but headless bodies are regularly found across Iraq. The latest victims, two Iraqi men said to have been spies for the Americans, were found in southern Baghdad this week.
Link Here
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