Islamic Militants Issue Call to Arms on CD

Followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi released a CD urging Muslim men to take up arms against the “crusaders” in Iraq and threatening to kill Iraq’s interim prime minister.

The 45-minute compact disc appeared aimed at recruiting potential fighters and included claims of responsibility for attacks in Iraq and footage of bombings against U.S. forces and other targets in Iraq.

The release of the CD, the contents of which could not be independently authenticated, was reported Friday by Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah, which provided a copy to Associated Press.

It was unclear where the CD was produced.

Titled “The Winds of Victory,” the recording shows fighters purportedly from Zarqawi’s Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad group undergoing weapons training in different locations, some apparently in the desert and others in grassy areas.

It also contains footage taken from inside cars following militants in Iraq conducting attacks, some of which has been previously aired by TV stations.

The Kuwaiti newspaper said the professionally produced CD was being circulated among fundamentalists in this oil-rich emirate, which borders Iraq.

A narrator on the film urges Muslim men to join the fight against U.S.-led forces in Iraq, saying, “Get up friends, God has opened the doors of paradise” to martyrs.

The CD also repeats the group’s threat to kill Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, saying, “You escaped ... several times from tight traps, but we promise you to go on [trying] until the end.”

The footage includes a car exploding in a street as people pass by. The narrator claims this attack was the May car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council President Abdul Zahra Othman, better known as Ezzedine Salim.

The CD starts with scenes of bombing raids conducted during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled President Saddam Hussein more than a year ago.

The recording identifies an Egyptian man, named Abu Farida Masri, as being responsible for the Aug. 19, 2003, truck bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. At least 22 people, including the U.N. representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, died in the attack.

Zarqawi’s group has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks across Iraq, including the beheadings of U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean interpreter Kim Sun Il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov.