WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has vowed insurgent suicide missions to avenge the honor of the Sunni woman who said she was raped by Shiite Iraqi police.
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, in a seven-minute audio message titled "At Your Rescue, Sister" and posted on Islamic extremist Web sites Thursday, said that 300 Mujahedin had volunteered for suicide missions upon hearing about the alleged rape.
"To you, the caravans of martyrs: Go ahead with Allah's blessing and engulf their checkpoints in fire, destroy their homes, and spill their blood to flow as streams," he said, according to a translation provided by the SITE Institute, a non-profit that tracks the Internet communications of Islamic extremists.
The Institute said the message was posted by the al-Furqan Foundation, the official media arm of the Islamic State of Iraq, the al-Qaida led coalition of Sunni insurgent groups.
Wednesday, the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the largest Sunni insurgent groups outside the coalition, posted a similar message, urging its members to concentrate their operations on Iraqi government forces, according to IntelCenter, a counter-terrorism consultancy that tracks public statements by al-Qaida and other groups for clients including the U.S. government.
Sabrin al-Janabi, a Sunni woman arrested by Iraqi police on suspicion of harboring insurgents, publicly charged Sunday that she had been raped in custody, provoking a wave of outrage among Sunnis and focusing concern among observers about human rights violations by the Iraqi police and their infiltration by Shiite militias and death squads.
"At this stage, the issue is merely being utilized by the media arms of these groups" for propaganda value, Ben Venzke of IntelCenter told United Press International.
He said groups would probably dedicate future attacks already in the works to avenging her -- referencing the case in claims of responsibility or videos of attack preparations.
"There is also the possibility that we will see some variations in targeting or tactics ... a shift to more focus on Iraqi forces," said Venzke.
