CAIRO, Egypt - Video messages of al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri can now be downloaded to cellphones, the terror network has announced, as part of its attempts to further extend its reach.
The announcement was posted late Friday by al Qaeda's media wing, al-Sahab, on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. As of Saturday, eight previously recorded videos were made available including a recent tribute to the slain former "al Qaeda in Iraq" leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by U.S. forces in Iraq in June 2006.
In a written message introducing the new cellphone videos, al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's No. 2 figure, asked followers to spread the terror group's messages.
"I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the people of the nations," al-Zawahri said.
Videos playable on cellphones are increasingly popular in the Middle East. The files are transferred from phone to phone using Bluetooth or infrared wireless technology.
Videos showing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's execution in December 2006 showed up on cellphones soon after his death. In Egypt, images showing police brutality have been passed around via cellphones including one video that showed an arrested bus driver being sodomized by police in the fall 2006.
Video and audio tapes from various Islamist groups including al Qaeda are available on militant Web sites but require a computer and a fast internet connection -- often rare in the region -- to download.
But the eight videos currently available to download to cellphones by al-Sahab range in size from 17 megabytes to 120 megabytes, requiring phones to have large amounts of free data capacity. Al-Sahab has promised to release more of its previous video messages in cellphone quality formats.
The terror network has been growing more sophisticated in targeting international audiences. Videos are always subtitled in English, and messages this year from bin Laden and al-Zawahri focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan have been dubbed in the local languages, Urdu and Pashtu.
In December, al Qaeda invited journalists to send questions to al-Zawahri. The invitation was the first time the media-savvy al Qaeda offered outsiders to "interview" one of its leaders since the 9-11 attacks.
