Australian intelligence officers are studying a video broadcast on Arab television showing a masked militant with an apparently Australian accent making terror threats, officials said yesterday.
The video, shown on Australian television after first being aired on Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, shows the man holding an automatic rifle and warning of attacks while criticizing British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush.
"The honorable sons of Islam will not just let you kill our families in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir and the Balkans, Indonesia, the Caucasus and elsewhere," the militant says in what local media called an Australian accent.
PHOTO: AFP
"It is time for us to be equals. As you kill us, you'll be killed. As you bomb us, you will be bombed."
The masked man, wearing a black balaclava and combat gear, claims a group of Al-Qaeda "fighters" carried out an attack on a helicopter that killed 16 soldiers in Afghanistan in June.
The video features blurred footage said to be of a rocket attack on the helicopter.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday that while it was difficult to be sure of the man's nationality, officials were trying to identify whether he is Australian.
"He seems to be a native English speaker," Downer said. "And, bearing in mind we do have a very small number of Australians who are jihadists, who have joined the jihad movement, who have trained with Al-Qaeda, we can't rule it out that it's an Australian."
The video comes amid controversy over comments last week by a radical Muslim cleric in Australia whose students have reportedly undergone military training in camps run by Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The cleric, Abdul Nasser Ben Brika, said in a televised interview in Australia that his students were justified in training for "jihad" or holy war and defended their right to fight against Australian and other US-led troops deployed in Iraq.
Prime Minister John Howard condemned the cleric's remarks and signaled that a summit meeting of state leaders and security service chiefs next month could result in new legislation outlawing such talk.
The summit has been called in the wake of the London bombings last month which killed more than 50 people and amid mounting concern that Australia could face similar attacks.
Howard has noted that the London suicide bombers were British, and has also called a meeting with Australian Islamic leaders in an attempt to prevent the spread of militant ideas among local Muslims.
Australia, which contributed troops to the US-led invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, has already charged several Muslims under terrorism laws adopted since the Sept. 11 attacks on the US.
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