Al-Qaida leader shows face

The Web video seemed to be an attempt by al-Zarqawi to get attention.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Clad in black, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi posed firing a machine gun in the desert and showed his face for the first time, creating an iconic image for himself in a new video to rally fighters behind his battle against Iraq's new government.
Only days after a political breakthrough, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq appealed to Sunni Arabs in Iraq and across the Arab world to fight the country's ascendant Shiites and Kurds.
At the same time that Arab news networks were airing footage of al-Zarqawi, Iraq's new prime minister designate, Jawad al-Maliki was proclaiming that the government he was building from Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties would be a blow to terrorism.
"If we can reach unity between all the components of the people, the canals of terrorism will dry up," al-Maliki said in an interview with Iraqi television.
Al-Zarqawi's message aimed to break up that unity.
Any new government -- "whether made up of the hated Shiites or the secular Zionist Kurds or the collaborators imposed on the Sunnis -- will be stooges of the Crusaders and will be a poisoned dagger in the heart of the Islamic nation," he said.
The 34-minute video, posted on the Web Tuesday, seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to reclaim the spotlight after months of taking a lower profile amid criticism of bombings against civilians.
It was his first message since an audiotape in January, and it followed a high-profile audiotape broadcast Sunday from Osama bin Laden, to whom the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi has sworn allegiance.
What analysts said
A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy, said analysts believe al-Zarqawi showed his face Tuesday to demonstrate that he is still engaged as a leader of jihad, or holy war.
Al-Zarqawi appeared in the video, which he said was made Friday, dressed head-to-toe in black with a black scarf around his head and a beard and mustache.
He seemed healthy, shown in one scene standing and firing a machine gun in a flat desert landscape that resembles the vast empty stretches of western Iraq, where he is believed to be hiding.
He delivered his statement, sitting inside with an ammunition vest around his body and an automatic rifle propped nearby. He was surrounded by masked militants also clad in black, but only his face was bare.
Al-Zarqawi warned that Sunnis were in danger of being caught between "the Crusaders and the evil Rejectionists," the terms used by radical Sunnis for the Americans and the Shiites.
"God almighty has chosen you to conduct holy war in your lands and has opened the doors of paradise to you. ... So mujahedeen, don't dare close those doors," he said. "They are slaughtering your children and shaming your women."
He trumpeted the success of the insurgency, saying "when the enemy entered into Iraq, their aim was to control Iraq and the area. But here we have been fighting them for the last three years."
He addressed President Bush, telling him, "By God, you will have no peace in the land of Islam."
"Your dreams will be defeated by our blood and by our bodies. What is coming is even worse," he said.
A U.S. intelligence official, who also declined to be identified in compliance with official policy, said a technical analysis had determined that the voice on the tape was al-Zarqawi's.
His crimes
Al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest suicide bombings in Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein and for the beheadings and killings of at least 10 foreign hostages, including three Americans and a Briton. The U.S military has put a $25 million bounty on his head.
He has made several audiotapes with similar messages, but the last video in which al-Zarqawi was believed to have appeared was one released on May 11, 2004, in which U.S. intelligence says he is a masked figure shown beheading American Nicholas Berg with a knife. His face is not visible.
If made Friday, the tape came three days before a triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people -- 21 Egyptians and three foreigners.
It was believed to be the first time al-Zarqawi's group has released a video showing his face, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, an Alexandria, Va.-based firm that provides counterterrorism intelligence services to the U.S. government.
The U.S. counterterrorism official said U.S. intelligence still believes that al-Zarqawi is in Iraq and that there was no evidence the video was linked to either the Egypt bombings or the bin Laden video.
A video, rather than an audio, is thought to increase the risk to the speaker, he said.
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