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Cairo: Al Qaida posted yesterday a video showing what they claimed to be an insurgent attack on a military position of US and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.
The video appears to be an attempt by the militant network to disparage US claims to be winning the war against the Taliban and allied militia in Afghanistan. It argues that the people of Afghanistan support the insurgents and provide physical assistance to their attacks on US-Afghan forces.
The video carried the logo of the Al Qaida media production company, as-Sahab, and was posted on a website known for hosting extremist material. It was titled "Holocaust of the Americans in the land of Khorasan, the Islamic emirate: Capture of an American post, Arghandab". Khorasan refers to Afghanistan.
Safe haven
The tape begins with the deputy leader of Al Qaida, Ayman Al Zawahri, ridiculing US President George W. Bush's claim to have deprived Al Qaida of a safe haven in Afghanistan is a "barefaced lie".
Al Zawahri, who speaks in Arabic with an English translation in subtitles, seems to be referring to a Bush speech on January 10 when the president said that US forces "took away Al Qaida's safe haven in Afghanistan - and we will not allow them to re-establish it in Iraq."
With a narrator speaking in American-accented English, the tape then shows video film of what it claims is an attack on a military position in Arghandab, a district in Zabul province, 160 km northeast of the southern city of Kandahar, carried out by 150 "mujahideen" led by Zakariya Al Jiddawi.
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