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‘Al Qaeda escapee’ vows to fight Americans

DUBAI: A website often used by militants posted a video tape on Monday in which a purported Al Qaeda escapee from a US airbase in Afghanistan vowed to fight Americans in Iraq and the United States.

The man, identified as Faruq al-Iraqi, said he was one of four Al Qaeda members who escaped from the base in July. A US defence official said in November four Qaeda members, including the group’s most senior operative in southeast Asia, Omar al-Faruq, escaped from Bagram military prison in July.

“I say to the Americans ... we will fight them ... in Iraq and in their country,” the man said on the tape recorded late in 2005 and posted on the Web site.

“They (Americans) will not be able to stop the march of Jihad ... with their checkpoints, forces, machinery, advanced equipment. No matter how strong or equipped they are they will not defeat the Almighty.” Sitting in a jungle wearing an ammunition belt, the man told the story of an “easy” escape from the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan where he was held after his arrest in Indonesia.

“We did not think it was this easy, to leave like this. We thought there were military positions...,” said Iraqi, who said he escaped with three other Al Qaeda members he identified with aliases Abou Nasser, Abou Yehya and Abdullah al-Shami. The tape showed what purported to be all four of them.

US intelligence officials say Faruq, a Kuwaiti, was captured in Indonesia in 2002 and handed to US custody.

The tape’s authenticity could not be verified. Al-Faruq is considered one of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s main lieutenants. He was captured in Indonesia in 2002 and handed over to the US authorities.

The escape of the four men, described by the US army as “dangerous combatants”, is a source of embarrassment at the main US base in Afghanistan.

One US source told AFP that the US army had found the escapees’ orange prison issue clothes, leading to suspicions that the four had received inside help to escape the camp which houses some 5,000 troops.

Last December Libyan Hassan, alias “Sheikh Abu Yahia al-Libi, defied the US in similar fashion in a video message.

The US military has said prison security procedures were bolstered immediately after the breakout of the four men, who were still at large.

The Bagram detention centre has housed hundreds of suspects since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up bin Laden after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States. agencies

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