It is an all-too-familiar ritual. Hours after an attack on a US convoy or an Iraqi police patrol, a brief statement begins appearing on Islamist Web sites claiming it was carried out by fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man.
But in the past two weeks something has changed. Every day now, new messages appear on the Web offering encouragement to resistance fighters, and last week, Zarqawi's group started an Internet magazine, complete with photographs and 43 pages of text. Other Islamist groups are joining the effort, including one calling itself the Jihadist Information Brigade.
The Iraqi insurgency appears to have mounted a full-scale propaganda war.
And while the methods are not new -- most militant groups now rely on the Web to recruit new adherents -- the recent flurry of propaganda from Iraq has a distinctly defensive sound. The violence here has not let up, but the relatively peaceful elections, and the new movements toward democracy in other Arab countries, appear to have had a dispiriting effect on the insurgents, terrorism analysts say.
"I think they feel they are losing the battle," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, an American nonprofit group that monitors Islamist Web sites and news operations. "They realize there will be a new government soon, and they seem very nervous about the future."
One recent Web posting, for instance, angrily disputed "the infidels' claim that the mujahedeen are weakened and their attacks are fewer." Another insisted that Zarqawi was "in good health" and still planning operations. Yet another warned against recent entreaties to insurgents to "sit down at the bargaining table" with the US and its allies.
It is hard, of course, to be sure of the authenticity of Internet postings. But US officials say those that appear with the Zarqawi logo seem to be credible, and that has led them to conclude that he does indeed have a news operation.
The group, al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, is also casting itself as a defender of Muslim lives. After an attack Wednesday on a hotel in central Baghdad, the group released an Internet statement claiming credit, noting, "As for the time, the deadly attack should always be before the start of the working day so that it won't harm Muslims who are passing by."
To some extent, the insurgents are creating their own press coverage, and successfully. After Wednesday's hotel attack in Baghdad, for instance, one group quickly released its own videotape of the bombing, along with statements explaining why and how it chose that target. Within hours, all of it was appearing not only on Arabic Web sites and chat rooms but also on television stations and even in some Western news reports.
But just in case, the group is adding a forum of its own. The new Internet magazine is called Zurwat al Sanam, Arabic for "the top of the camel's hump," a metaphorical phrase meaning the ideal of Islamic belief and practice.
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