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U.S. military releases footage of Al-Zarqawi fumbling with gun | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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This undated video image released by the The U.S. military command May 4, 2006, shows a previously unseen images of a video purportedly posted by al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (AP)


This undated video image released by the The U.S. military command May 4, 2006, shows a previously unseen images of a video purportedly posted by al-Qaeda in Iraq's leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (AP)

This undated video image released by the The U.S. military command May 4, 2006, shows a previously unseen images of a video purportedly posted by al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi (AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – A videotape showing the most wanted terrorist in Iraq wearing American tennis shoes and struggling to fire a U.S.-made machine gun was shown on television across the country on Friday as many Iraqis began their weekend.

The video, released Thursday by the U.S. military as part of a propaganda war aimed at undercutting the image of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was repeatedly shown Friday on Iraqi state television and pan-Arab satellite TV Al-Arabiya.

It was strikingly different from video posted last month on Islamist Web sites showing a stocky al-Zarqawi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, confidently firing bursts from the weapon like an experienced jihadist fighter. But the U.S. military said the images were all from the same video.

The U.S. command said the unflattering clips shown to reporters Thursday in Baghdad were part of a longer video that American troops seized in a raid last month.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the U.S. command, showed the new outtakes as the U.S. military is stepping up operations against al-Qaeda in Iraq and making overtures to other Sunni groups.

The Americans hope to isolate religious extremists from insurgents they believe are more likely to cut a deal to end the war.

U.S. and Iraqi forces clamped a curfew in Samarra on Friday as they searched homes looking for insurgents, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said.

On Thursday, U.S. Army soldiers detained three suspected insurgents carrying roadside bombs in Samarra, then killed three other militants who opened fire on the American forces from the roof of a nearby building, the U.S. military said. An Iraqi citizen was wounded in the crossfire, but the American forces suffered no casualties, the military said.

Samarra was the site of the Feb. 22 explosion at a Shiite shrine that enflamed sectarian tensions, forcing tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee their homes and pushing the country to the brink of civil war.

The bodies of five Iraqis who apparently were kidnapped and killed in captivity also were found, four in Baghdad and one on the outskirts of the city, police said. Such sectarian killings by “death squads” have become common in Iraq, especially in the capital.

Lynch mocked al-Zarqawi as the previously unseen footage showed a smiling al-Qaeda leader first firing single shots from a U.S.-made M-249 light machine gun. A frown creeps across al-Zarqawi’s face as the weapon jams. He looks at it, confused, then summons another fighter.

“It’s supposed to be automatic fire. He’s shooting single shots,” Lynch said. “Something is wrong with his machine gun. He looks down, can’t figure out, calls his friend to come unblock the stoppage and get the weapon firing again.”

By contrast, the edited version which the militants posted on the Web showed what happened only after the fighter fixed the weapon, a fierce-looking al-Zarqawi confidently blasting away with bursts of automatic gunfire. His fellow fighters and associates appear similarly inept in the newly released footage. One reaches out to grab a just-fired weapon by the barrel, apparently unaware that it would burn his hand. The camera quickly pans to the ground and then away. “His close associates around him … do things like grab the hot barrel of the machine gun and burn themselves,” Lynch said. “Makes you wonder” about their military skills.

Another clip showed the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who has derided everything Western, dressed in a black uniform but wearing New Balance tennis shoes as he walked to a white pickup.

Lynch said the full video was discovered during one of several raids against al-Qaeda in Iraq safe houses in the Baghdad area starting with an operation last month near Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the capital.

U.S. forces have killed 31 “foreign fighters” since April and have captured 161 al-Qaeda in Iraq officials since the beginning of the year, Lynch said. He said al-Zarqawi was focusing operations on the Baghdad area, a religiously mixed city where more than 20 percent of Iraq’s 27 million people live. Planning documents also seized in the Youssifiyah raids spelled out this strategy, which also involves fewer attacks in Sunni areas. “Zarqawi is zooming in on Baghdad, and we are zooming in on Zarqawi,” Lynch said.

American military officials said the new clips were released Thursday to Arab media. That was too late for many evening newscasts that night, but on Friday, the start of a two-day weekend for many Iraqis, the new video footage was widely shown on state-run and satellite TV.

The previously posted al-Qaeda footage, in which al-Zarqawi pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and mocked the U.S., also was widely transmitted by Arab satellite stations.

Iraqis mourn the death of a loved one, killed in a bomb explosion in front of the court building in Palestine Street, eastern Baghdad, 4 May 2006 (EPA)

Iraqis mourn the death of a loved one, killed in a bomb explosion in front of the court building in Palestine Street, eastern Baghdad, 4 May 2006 (EPA)

Iraqis cry outside a hospital after their father was among those killed in a bomb attack near a courthouse in Baghdad May 4, 2006 (REUTERS)

Iraqis cry outside a hospital after their father was among those killed in a bomb attack near a courthouse in Baghdad May 4, 2006 (REUTERS)