New Video Shows Signs al Qaeda Fears US Closing In
Osama bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has ordered his fighters to target Pakistan amid growing signs that its army and US drones are closing in on al-Qaeda. Military analysts and retired senior army chiefs said his call reflected growing disarray in the militant ranks following the death of Pakistan’s feared Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud earlier this month and the brutal leadership battle it has provoked.
Mehsud is one of several “high-value” Taliban and al-Qaeda figures killed by Predator drones in the tribal areas close to its border with Afghanistan, while their allies in Swat Valley, where the charismatic Maulana Fazlullah, known as “Maulana Radio” for his popular fundamentalist radio broadcasts, have been driven out by a Pakistan army offensive.
The Taliban was finally forced to confirm Mehsud’s death earlier this week after insisting he was merely ill. Analysts said they had wanted to confirm his successor before admitting their most effective leader to date had been killed.
Since his death a number of Pakistani Taliban commanders have surrendered or announced ceasefire amid shifting alliances in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
The intervention of al-Qaeda’s deputy leader is an attempt to shore up the new Taliban leadership, prevent further defections, and inspire a new offensive to stop Pakistani and American forces from getting closer to their “safe haven” along the border, analysts said.
In a video recording released to a militant website, Zawahiri said the battle against American and Pakistani armies in the region is the battle against “crusader” forces. “The war in the tribal areas and Swat is an inseparable part of the Crusaders’ assault on the Muslims the length and breadth of the Islamic world,” he said.
