The second-ranking leader of al-Qaeda has warned the top militant in Iraq that attacks on civilians and videotaped executions committed by his followers threaten to jeopardize the broader extremist cause, a senior US official said on Thursday.
The warning, from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was in a 6,000-word letter, dated early in July, that was obtained by US forces conducting counterterrorism operations in Iraq, the official said in a briefing.
Al-Zawahiri said that Iraq had become "the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era," but that al-Zarqawi's forces should keep in mind that it was only a stepping stone toward a broader victory for militant Islam across the Middle East.
"The mujahedeen must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal," al-Zawahiri said in the letter, according to a partial translation provided by the official.
The official said al-Zawahiri also warned that al-Zarqawi's forces should concentrate their attacks on Americans rather than on Iraqi civilians, and should refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on al-Qaeda Web sites. Those executions have been condemned in parts of the Muslim world as violating tenets of the faith. The official said the letter was made public on Thursday after the government learned that CBS and NBC were preparing broadcasts based on partial descriptions of its contents.
The official would not say when or how US forces obtained the communication, or whether it was in electronic or printed form. But the official said he had "the highest confidence of its authenticity."
The letter outlines what the official described as a comprehensive and chilling strategic vision for al-Qaeda operations in Iraq and beyond.
It included a four-stage battle plan, beginning with the expulsion of the US military and followed by the establishment of a militant Islamic caliphate across Iraq before moving to Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The final step would be a battle by Islamic forces against Israel.
RSS