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Al-Qaeda uploads new Afghanistan video

Al-Qaeda posted a 56-second video on Friday of rockets being fired at what it claimed was a US military base in Afghanistan.

The tape appeared to be the latest in a series of videos that the terror network has released to convey that its insurgents are faring well in the Afghan war.

The base was not visible in the video, which showed several rockets being launched from a forested hillside in the Balwara area of Afghanistan in November, according to a subtitle.

The video, which opened with old footage of US vehicles exploding as they were hit, surfaced on an Internet site where al-Qaeda and other militant groups are known to post messages. Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

The pictures were accompanied by a song whose lyrics included the line: "Burn the Christians, fight the devious Christians who worship crosses."

The tape shows four missiles streaking into the sky from a single-tube launcher that is held down by sandbags and rocks. Two bearded young fighters squat next to the launcher, operating it in a perfectly relaxed way. One wears a dark-blue woolen hat, the other is bareheaded.

A third man, with a light brown scarf loosely wrapped around his head, stands and points across a valley, presumably at the target. A long aerial protrudes from his off-camera side as if he is holding a walkie-talkie.

Shouts of "Allahu Akbar," God is great in Arabic, are heard as the rockets are fired.

There is no sign of the four missiles hitting anything. The tape does not show them land.

The tape is titled Holocaust of the Americans in the Land of Khorasan, the Islamic Emirate. Khorasan, a name from the Persian empire, is the militant word for Afghanistan. The subtitle says: "Launching, BM missiles on an American base in Balwara."

The tape bears the logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media production wing.

A US company that tracks militant statements, IntelCenter, said the video was the eighth that al-Qaeda has released so far this month, making this month the second busiest for video issued by the terror network.

The previous Friday, an al-Qaeda video was posted which purported to show a successful attack on a military position held by US and Afghan forces. A NATO spokeswoman called it "pure propaganda."
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