Al-Qa'ida Central Video Documents Kamikaze Attack on U.S. Military Base in Afghanistan, Revenge for April Killings of Islamic State of Iraq Leaders

"Expedition/Raid of the Two Shaykhs: Abu 'Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, may God have mercy on them."

Al-Qa'ida Central's (AQC) media outlet, the Al-Sahab (The Clouds) Media Foundation, released a 43-minute video yesterday documenting a kamikaze attack on a United States/Afghan military base. The operation, which involved four attackers, and video were dubbed the "Expedition/Raid of the Two Shaykhs," referring to Abu 'Umar al-Baghdadi and Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the two former senior leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Qa'ida in the Land of the Two Rivers/Iraq (AQI) who were killed on April 19 in a U.S. airstrike.

Luqman al-Makki (left), Musa al-Turki (center), and Musa al-Afghani (right) study a map

The Somali jihadi-insurgent group Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen (Movement of Warrior-Youth; Al-Shabaab) has also carried out a kamikaze attack in revenge for the two leaders' deaths, which I wrote about in a PREVIOUS POST.



Background on the ISI, an umbrella for several of the most violent jihadi-insurgent groups operating in Iraq including Al-Qa'ida in the Land of the Two Rivers/Iraq (AQI), and both leaders can be found in my guest editorial, "The Death of a Caliph: Will the Reported Killings of the Islamic State of Iraq's Two Senior Leaders Spell Out the End of the Self-styled Jihadi State?", on Prof. Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog.

The four attackers were identified as a Saudi, a Turk, a Pakistani from Swat, and an Afghan: Luqman al-Makki ("one from Mecca"), Musa al-Afghani, Musa al-Turki, and Na'im Allah al-Swati, "one from Swat Valley"). In scenes showing the planning of the attack, the four are seen studying what appears to be a high-quality map of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Clips of the four young men's "martyrdom" wills are interspersed with footage of the planning sessions and actual attack.



Stills from the video are below:

Luqman al-Makki

Luqman al-Makki reads his "martyrdom" will-statement (see bottom-center)

Luqman al-Makki prepares to set off in an explosives-laden truck

Na'im Allah al-Swati ("one from Swat")

Musa al-Turki

Musa al-Afghani

The video may be downloaded via:

http://www.archive.org/details/iba-wa-3isa

http://www.archive.org/details/iba-wa-3isa1

All links are working as of this writing.