Iraq's militants put new touches to propaganda war
BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Shrouded in woollen ski masks in a makeshift television studio, members of one of Iraq's most ruthless militant groups debate tactics in a propaganda video aimed at gaining new recruits for the insurgency.
A relative lull in violence over the past few days has been accompanied by the stepped-up distribution of such discs, part of the militant strategy of gaining followers and intimidating enemies with images of devastating bombings.
Lieutenant-General John Vines, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, said on Friday that al Qaeda in Iraq was "increasingly in disarray" and that violence over recent days had been at its lowest level for three months, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
But militant groups appear as determined as ever and have been handing out more videos in Baghdad mosques in a bid to attract more fighters for the Sunni insurgency.
Videos have been one of the few sources of intelligence on Islamic militant groups loosely tied to Saddam Hussein loyalists leading the insurgency.
Previous discs typically showed roadside bomb attacks on U.S. Humvees or Iraqi police patrols.
Insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna, which has kidnapped and killed foreigners and Iraqis, seems to have embarked on a more dynamic appeal to sell holy war -- the television studio interview.
A masked man smartly dressed in a sport coat and identified as the head of the group's information section asks his guest about military strategy. The interview is interspersed with video images of young fighters firing mortars.
"Rockets are preferable in attacks on U.S. bases because they are outside cities and attacking police stations puts civilians at risk," says the interviewee, identified as a military expert from the same organisation.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video. But it contained images seen on many other militant discs.
The video looked like the insurgent version of breakfast television in Western countries, but with one crucial, incongruous difference -- both interviewer and interviewee conceal their faces with black woollen masks to avoid capture.
DEBATE, ROCKETS AND MORTARS
In one video, a relaxed militant walks down a street in broad daylight and blows up a nearby vehicle with a highly visible remote control in his hand.
Another image features a militant who dies when his rocket launcher explodes in his hands, an apparent attempt to show that martyrdom is possible even if you don't hit U.S. forces.
As the video ends, viewers are reminded that the material is under copyright.
For its part, the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led Iraqi government locked in a battle with Sunni insurgents has tried to turn people against guerrillas by broadcasting a television show in which suspected insurgents confess to killing, rape, and theft.
Some of the men have appeared with bruised faces, raising allegations of confessions made under duress. The government has denied allegations that security forces torture people.
The U.S. military also engages in the information battle, frequently issuing press statements on American soldiers fighting "terrorists" and building schools.
While Ansar al-Sunna was handing out more sophisticated discs, al Qaeda released a video of three militants who said they were on a mission from God before blowing themselves up in vans packed with artillery shells outside a Baghdad hotel.
The operation was dedicated to an Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets, illustrating a complicated global militant web that is only a small part of the insurgency tying down American soldiers in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Mussab al-Khairalla and Waleed Mubdir)
A relative lull in violence over the past few days has been accompanied by the stepped-up distribution of such discs, part of the militant strategy of gaining followers and intimidating enemies with images of devastating bombings.
Lieutenant-General John Vines, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq, said on Friday that al Qaeda in Iraq was "increasingly in disarray" and that violence over recent days had been at its lowest level for three months, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.
But militant groups appear as determined as ever and have been handing out more videos in Baghdad mosques in a bid to attract more fighters for the Sunni insurgency.
Videos have been one of the few sources of intelligence on Islamic militant groups loosely tied to Saddam Hussein loyalists leading the insurgency.
Previous discs typically showed roadside bomb attacks on U.S. Humvees or Iraqi police patrols.
Insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna, which has kidnapped and killed foreigners and Iraqis, seems to have embarked on a more dynamic appeal to sell holy war -- the television studio interview.
A masked man smartly dressed in a sport coat and identified as the head of the group's information section asks his guest about military strategy. The interview is interspersed with video images of young fighters firing mortars.
"Rockets are preferable in attacks on U.S. bases because they are outside cities and attacking police stations puts civilians at risk," says the interviewee, identified as a military expert from the same organisation.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video. But it contained images seen on many other militant discs.
The video looked like the insurgent version of breakfast television in Western countries, but with one crucial, incongruous difference -- both interviewer and interviewee conceal their faces with black woollen masks to avoid capture.
DEBATE, ROCKETS AND MORTARS
In one video, a relaxed militant walks down a street in broad daylight and blows up a nearby vehicle with a highly visible remote control in his hand.
Another image features a militant who dies when his rocket launcher explodes in his hands, an apparent attempt to show that martyrdom is possible even if you don't hit U.S. forces.
As the video ends, viewers are reminded that the material is under copyright.
For its part, the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led Iraqi government locked in a battle with Sunni insurgents has tried to turn people against guerrillas by broadcasting a television show in which suspected insurgents confess to killing, rape, and theft.
Some of the men have appeared with bruised faces, raising allegations of confessions made under duress. The government has denied allegations that security forces torture people.
The U.S. military also engages in the information battle, frequently issuing press statements on American soldiers fighting "terrorists" and building schools.
While Ansar al-Sunna was handing out more sophisticated discs, al Qaeda released a video of three militants who said they were on a mission from God before blowing themselves up in vans packed with artillery shells outside a Baghdad hotel.
The operation was dedicated to an Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack U.S. targets, illustrating a complicated global militant web that is only a small part of the insurgency tying down American soldiers in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Mussab al-Khairalla and Waleed Mubdir)
posted by Marko at 1/14/2006 12:40:00 PM
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