UNKNOWN LOCATION: ACCORDING TO ISLAMIST WEBSITE SENIOR AL QAEDA OPERATIVE ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI PLEDGES TO CARRY OUT MORE ATTACKS ON U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ

Record ID: 860459

  • Title: UNKNOWN LOCATION: ACCORDING TO ISLAMIST WEBSITE SENIOR AL QAEDA OPERATIVE ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI PLEDGES TO CARRY OUT MORE ATTACKS ON U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ
  • Date: 8th April 2004
  • Summary: (W6) UNKNOWN LOCATION (RECENT) (REUTERS) SCU COMPUTER MONITOR DISPLAYING WEB SITE WWW.AL-ANSAR.BIZ SCU WEB SITE PAGE WITH ARABIC SPEECH ATTRIBUTED TO SENIOR AL-QAEDA OPERATIVE ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI (AUDIO MAN READING IN ARABIC)
  • Embargoed: 23rd April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: UNKNOWN LOCATION
  • City:
  • Country:
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4C2LHEE5K6ZHY7LSM38JMGOF8
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: According to an Islamist website, senior Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi pledged to carry out more attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.
    Senior Al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, sentenced to death in absentia in a Jordan court on Tuesday (April 6), pledged to carry out more attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, according to an audio tape aired on an Islamist website.
    "We will not let you off, you snakes of evil, until you lift your hands off our mosques and stop shedding the blood of Sunnis and helping the enemies, the crusaders and Jews, against Muslims," the voice on the tape said.
    Washington believes Zarqawi is based in Iraq.
    In the audio tape, believed to have been recorded in Iraq, Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks that have targeted U.S and other coalition forces since U.S. troops captured Baghdad last April.
    "We have chopped their heads and torn their bodies in many places...at the United Nations in Baghdad, the coalition forces in Kerbala, the Italians in Nassiriya, the American forces on the Khalidiya bridge, U.S. intelligence at Chahine hotel, the presidential palace in Baghdad, the CIA in al Rashid hotel and the Polish forces in (the town) of Hilla," the tape said.
    Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadheel al-Khalayleh, was among eight Islamic militants sentenced to death by Jordan's state security court for their role in killing a U.S. diplomat in an assassination blamed on followers of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
    Zarqawi was already sentenced to death in absentia last year for plotting attacks on Westerners.
    They were all charged with conspiring to carry out "terrorist acts that caused the death of a person and possession of an unlicensed automatic weapon".
    Zarqawi led a group of Jordanians opposed to their kingdom's moderate rulers who were drawn to al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan.
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