Al-Qaida affiliate aims to recruit Muslims with new magazine

A new online magazine purportedly posted by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has launched an effort to recruit Muslims to rid Iraq of Americans and their Iraqi partners:

The colorful, well-designed magazine is named Zurwat al-Sanam, Arabic for "The Tip of the Camel's Hump" - a reference among Islamic militants to "the epitome of belief and virtuous activity."

The inaugural 43-page issue was posted two days after al-Qaida in Iraq, the group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for an attack Monday against police and army recruits that killed 125 people in Hillah, just south of Baghdad.

The group has also said it was behind car bombings and attacks that killed 14 police officers Wednesday. Al-Zarqawi's organization has been blamed for many of the bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq.

Washington-based counterterrorism expert Evan Kohlmann told the Associated Press the magazine aims at "conveying the sense that the organization is professional, capable and really understands what they're doing."

It was designed as "an attempt to refute the idea that al-Zarqawi and these people are desperate. . . . It shows that these people have time on their hands and don't have to worry about mobility."

Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, the designated "media coordinator" for al-Zarqawi's group, posted the magazine on the Internet.

Saved as an attachment, it has appeared on at least two extremist Islamic Web sites that have previously posted al-Qaida statements and claims of responsibility.

Mainly a rehash of letters, tracts and texts that have previously appeared on the Internet, the magazine includes a vow of fealty from al-Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden and a pledge to keep fighting.

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Al-Qaida in Iraq launches Internet magazine urging Muslims to join jihad