By IANS,
Toronto : A website linked to the Al-Qaeda has signaled jihadists to target Christians in Canada , the US , Australia , Britain , Spain and Italy as well as their oil and economic interests.
According to Ottawa Citizen, al-Ekhlaas.net carried this message in Arabic for jihadi cells in a posting July 7, coinciding with the third anniversary of the London blasts.
Under the name of Abu Hajar Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin (al-Qaeda leader killed in Saudi Arabia in 2004), the posting titled `Clandestine work inside the city’ calls for creation of four-member jihadist cells for training in urban terror.
According to the message, an urban cell needs a commanding unit, an intelligence unit, a logistics unit and an execution unit. These units should communicate indirectly through using the dead letter box technique (or `save draft’ drop box on a shared e-mail account), the newspaper quoted the posting as saying.
The posting directs jihadists that the intelligence cell that collects information on a target must not know the purpose of the information. The cell that secures weapons and equipment must not know the target or the time of execution.
Cautioning them against attacking religious figures for fear of harming their cause, the posting says urban cells should instead hit economic targets. These include Jewish investments in Muslim countries, multinational companies, exports from `Crusader countries’ (read the west) and raw materials being `stolen from Muslim countries by the enemies.’
The posting also calls for attacks on oil wells, pipelines and oil tankers.
Quoting the Jamestown Foundation which translated the posting, the newspaper said the Jews from Israel and the US top the jihadist list of human targets.
Next on the list are Christians from Canada , the US , Britain , Spain , Australia and Italy .
Termed apostates, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other Gulf leaders with close ties to Jewish and “Christian” governments come third on the jihadist hit list.
Fourth on the list are secular individuals, including `spies and security officials’ who `protect Jews and Christians.’
The daily quoted Wesley Wark, a security expert and visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa, as saying that the posting is “a response to the knowledge that home-grown and loosely affiliated terror networks will normally be lacking in operational knowledge and experience, especially around surveillance and security.
“The website is another reminder that the Internet is a powerful tool for jihad and al-Qaeda and recognized by them as such.”
Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden has long clubbed Canada , the US , Australia , Britain and Spain as the five major Christian targets for his jihadists.