WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Al-Qaida calls for foreign hostages
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-17 09:26

SYDNEY: A senior Al-Qaida official has called on the Taliban to wage a campaign of kidnapping foreign civilians in Afghanistan in order to force US-led forces to negotiate prisoner exchanges, Australian media reported.

The directive has been issued by veteran Al-Qaida adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al-Masri, and stems from the US detentions in Guantanamo Bay, former counter-terrorism analyst Leah Farrall told The Australian newspaper on Wednesday.

Farrall, who had worked for the Australian Federal Police, said she had uncovered the Al- Qaida Internet document, written in late July, while completing a PhD on Al-Qaida at Monash University in Australia.

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The document, "The US Soldier in Afghanistan - the first step for the release of all prisoners of the war on terror", argues the capture of a US soldier earlier this year should be used as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to negotiate the release of Taliban and Al- Qaida prisoners.

"Directing his article at the Taliban's leadership, al-Masri said it was time for them to start targeting foreign civilians as well as military personnel," Farrall wrote in The Australian.

"Al-Masri argued America's detention and torture of Muslims, and its failure to distinguish between civilians and the military, justified the use of this new strategy. He said the Taliban should do as its enemy does."

Australia's Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism Bill Paterson said that while kidnapping campaigns had been used by Al-Qaida, militants in north Africa and the Philippine's Abu Sayyaf rebels, it was unclear whether the Taliban would adopt such a tactic.

"The Taliban learn from Al-Qaida and possibly vice versa. But the Taliban are their own people and there is some evidence that some in the Taliban see Al-Qaida in their midst in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan as intruders and foreigners," Paterson said in Sydney.

"Many Taliban and many in Afghanistan would like to be rid of Al-Qaida," said Paterson.

Hamid has been detained in Iran since 2003 but remains an influential figure in the militant movement and maintains contact with his followers through jihadist websites, said Farrall.

Six weeks after his directive was released, a New York Times journalist and his Afghan colleague were kidnapped in Afghanistan.

Reuters