|
|
|
Mustafa Abu Yazid on As Sahab, al Qaeda’s propaganda arm. |
Al Qaeda’s military commander in Afghanistan has threatened India with further attacks if the country attacks Pakistan.
“India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan,” Mustafa Abu Yazid said in a recently released videotape. “The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.”
In the videotape, Yazid referred to the November 2008 terror assault in Mumbai, saying the Indians suffered “humiliation” in the attack and more was in store if India decides to retaliate against Pakistan, the BBC reported.
The 62-hour terror spree in Mumbai resulted in 165 innocent people killed and hundreds more wounded. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda and supported by powerful elements within Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency and the military, carried out the attack, an Indian intelligence dossier stated. The dossier contained proof of calls made between the Mumbai terrorists and their handlers inside Pakistan as the attacks were ongoing, as well as transcripts of the handlers providing information to the terrorists and ordering them to murder the civilians. The handlers were heard cheering after the murders.
Yazid is al Qaeda’s military commander in Afghanistan and is a senior leader in the organization. He has claimed credit for the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as she campaigned in Rawalpindi, as well as a suicide attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad in June 2008.
The Pakistani military claimed Yazid was killed during a battle in the Bajaur tribal agency August 2008, but never provided confirmation. The Pakistanis repeated the claim of Yazid’s death at the end of September 2008.
Today’s BBC report that Yazid has not appeared since the report of his death last summer is incorrect. Since last summer, Yazid has appeared in at least four other al Qaeda propaganda tapes prior to the latest threat against India.
On Sept. 2, 2008, Yazid lionized Abu Gharib al Makki, a senior al Qaeda field commander from Saudi Arabia who was killed during fighting with US forces in Farah province in southwestern Afghanistan.
On Sept. 5, 2008, Yazid appeared on a videotape that praised the suicide bomber who attacked the Danish embassy in Islamabad.
On Sept. 8, 2008, Yazid appeared on al Qaeda’s propaganda tape that was released three days prior to the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Abdulmalik Droukedel, the leader of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command, also appeared on the video.
On Oct. 4, 2008, Yazid appeared on a videotape that featured Adam Gadahn, al Qaeda’s American-born spokesman. Pakistani officials also had claimed Gadahn was killed in a January 2008 airstrike that killed al Qaeda military commander Abu Laith al Libi.
On Nov. 13, 2008, al Qaeda castigated the Pakistani military for claiming Yazid was killed. “It was a cheap publicity shot on behalf of the Pakistani security forces to boast their military successes in Bajaur,” a jihadi told Adnkronos International.
Two months later, and seven months after the Pakistani military began fighting in Bajaur, Pakistan’s adviser to the prime minister on internal Pakistani security issues claimed security forces “succeeded to retake about 98 percent control” of Bajaur. But fighting is still ongoing and the Taliban have begun bombing schools in the region, as they have been doing in Swat, a district that has been under Taliban control for almost two years.
For more information on the poor reliability of Pakistani government, military, and intelligence sources’ claims regarding the death of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, see Pakistan has poor track record reporting deaths of senior terrorist leaders.
20 Comments
How fortunate for Pakistan ?? -they have the Army and Al-Qaeda to defend them.
Yazid does not seem to realize that nothing will humiliate a country
A. that has had no problems with an entire mountain range called the Hindu Kush ( translation : Hindu killing)
B. still maintains normal trade and business relations with a country which is sworn to its disintegration.
C. does not have too many problems being humiliated in the first place.
I dont think any amount of incendiary speech is going to provoke India into doing anything. It is not going to embarrass Pakistan either. This is the same country which still considers the biggest nuclear proliferator AQ Khan a “national hero”
This is just another publicity stunt to show AQ followers that it is still thriving.
[deleted by site administrator for violating the comments policy.]
No, Steve, this is not a war against Islam.
Would someone please off this idjit. He is just so full of bluster.
As of March ’08 there were 254,000 men in the Iraqi Army.
As of October ’08 there 80,000 men in the Afghan Army, with plans to expand to 130,000.
They are all Muslims and they are all on our side. Clearly, we are not at war with Islam. Nor is Islam itself at war with us.
YET,
R
More nonsense from a bunch of low life murderers. Real tough guys killing unarmed people. More people need to talk and humiliate them for being such low lifes and state how weak they really are for picking on unarmed people.
Sundering the Americans into Pakistan’s border worked out real well. I’d say Al Qaeda is pretty good at sundering their fellow Muslims into the ground though.
So, if India doesn’t attack, does Al Qaeda sunder more Pakistani’s into the ground?
If Swat is “a district that has been under Taliban control for almost two years,” then why would the Taliban be bombing schools there? Swat must yet be contested. The Taliban would simply close the schools if they were truly in control. The whole business makes one wonder about the accuracy of the reporting.
James,
Perhaps you should read the numerous reports from Swat, many referenced here at this site. The Pakistani government cut peace deals with the Taliban, admitted all but Mingora is under Taliban control (several times, and even control of Mingora is tenuous as the Taliban routinely conducts terror attacks there). The Taliban runs the government and the courts, collects taxes, etc. You might want to read what the 300,000 plus refugees from the region are saying to the press. Or the Awami National Party, which runs the Northwest Frontier Province. Shall I continue?
My advice to you is to use the search function here at this site, then perhaps you can make a more informed judgment.
[comment removed for violating comment policy – replacing a curse word with characters]
Yazid is an asset of ISI and the video release coincides with Mr. Holbrook’s visit. This is ISI saying to the envoy that tension with India is high… we are hard-pressed to help you on your thing…. unless you give us more aid and ammunitions. Ground hog day continues…
[Comment deleted. If you have a problem with the comments policy, email the address stated in the policy. Also, the email address is invalid, which made attempts to explain this a waste of time.]
I’m just stunned that India still has not taken any military action against Pakistan over the Mumbai attack. What are the Indians waiting for? They seem to have the evidence of Pakistani ISI complicity in the attack, and they know that the terrorists originated from Pakistan, so why don’t the Indians do something about it? I think it’s beginning to make the Indians look like a paper tiger if they will not retaliate to such a blatant attack.
Libertyship46:
I am equally puzzled by India’s reaction so far. International diplomacy is hard to figure out but I recently read a book on 1971 war that resulted in birth of Bangladesh. The author mentioned that India took 9 months to cover all their bases before the actual army got involved and the war lasted for 4-6 weeks(?). I guess the fall out of attacking Pakistan is many peoples business and a forced implosion is much safer in my view.
Sorry Bill, I stand properly chastised.
So here is the comment, without the evil word.
To my mind, everybody misses the point in the way he said what he said.
For most fundos (fundamentalist extremist Muslims of the
AQ/LeT/Wahhabi/Deobandi/etc flavor), the shrill shrieks of”We will
humiliate you” is the continued quest to keep everybody on their playing
field, which India tries not to be on (whether we like it or not, much less
recognize it or not).
To many of the folks from Muslim cultures, and I don’t know if it is the
Islam or the underlying pre-existing culture (like tribalism) emphasize the
humilation aspect in defeating a foe, not the physical destruction or
change of a foe. for instance, the whole shoe throwing thing and Bush and
America is suppose to be “humiliated.”
Is like the American Indian “counting coup” kind of thing, only more
verbally and mentally vicious (sorta kinda).
If I were India, I would have nuked the bejeebers out of Pakistan long ago, but
the Indians apparently have different priorities. If they can continue to
function the way they want to, even if it is a case of sticks and stones do
hurt me but words not at all, then “pffft!” for humiliation.
This AQ threat to India is just that, hot air and meaningless to India.
India (and everybody else) can only be humiliated by AQ and their ilk if
they allow them that little victory. While killing them may be good, but
ignoring them and demeaning them by not buying into their effort to control
the “narrative” both humiliates them and grants them only non-relevance,
which is worse to them than death.
My opinion.
S/F, Vern
Vern,
First let me point out that ideology and social practices for Al Qaeda and those of the Islamic community at large are separate and distinct. Al Qaeda may draw views from the community at large but those views are distorted in the extreme. Islamic extremism, Arab extremism, and Pakistani extremism have many common denominators, but each has its own history.
With regard to Al Qaeda, their desire to humiliate does not stand apart from their intention to destroy. We are talking about a desire to destroy their enemies both temporally and spiritually. In other words, they would be quite content to blow people up, desecrate their bodies in the most disgusting ways, celebrate while the corpses are being dragged through the streets, and hang the entrails in the town market as an example to everyone; And let’s not leave out cursing the soul of their dead enemy on its way to hell.
Now I will grant you that what I have described is indeed very heavy in symbolism. It also invariably includes killing and physically destroying. This has long ago passed the “sticks and stones”
What is it Alqueda is worried about?It knows pakistan can stand and defend. It is worrried about the NUKE thresehold of pakistan being reached by Indian conventional attack and if at all nukes are loaded by pakistan, it will be taken out by the US fleet.
Nukes are in Wazirstan IN PROTECTION OF ISI TRAINED SPECIAL BAND OF FIGHTERS and that is why they fear the DRONES.
I don’t think India has reached thier boiling point yet. The US may be pleading for the Indians to hold off? A nuclear exchange is possible. All reasons, maybe one better than the other, but in a conventional battle, India would have the upper hand. The US should ramp up the air-strikes, if the intel is there. Where and when do these camps operate? Why have they gone untouched? I don’t think ther’s 157 camps going full bore day and night, but they have to be out in the open sometime. Forget the Predator, let a fast mover get there before they know wats hit them.
we all know inida scared of Al Qaeda and there fight with terror is also a joke
India is bit hesistant to take action as it leads to nuclear exchange ultimately and both these countries would be ruined.