Top terrorist makes plea for unity

BAGHDAD -- A new video by al-Qaida's deputy leader Thursday left no doubt about what the terrorist network claims is at stake in Iraq, describing it as a centerpiece of its anti-American fight and insisting the Iraqi insurgency is under its direct leadership.

But the proclamations by Ayman al-Zawahri carried another unintended message: reflecting the current troubles confronting the Sunni extremists in Iraq, experts said.

The Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group that is claimed by al-Qaida, has faced ideological criticism from some militants, and rival armed groups have joined U.S. battles against it. A U.S.-led offensive northwest of Baghdad -- in one of the Islamic State's strongholds -- may have temporarily disrupted and scattered insurgent forces.

"Some of the developments suggest that it [the Islamic State] is more fragile than it was before," said Bruce Hoffman, a Washington-based terrorism expert at the RAND think tank.

Al-Zawahri "is trying to replenish the Islamic State brand," he said.

In the unusually long video -- about an hour and a half -- al-Zawahri depicted the Islamic State of Iraq as a vanguard for fighting off the U.S. military and establishing a "caliphate" of Islamic rule.

"The Islamic State of Iraq is set up in Iraq, the mujahedeen [holy warriors] celebrate it in the streets of Iraq, the people demonstrate in support of it," al-Zawahri said, "pledges of allegiance to it are declared in the mosques of Baghdad."

He called on all Muslims to "support this blessed fledgling mujahid garrison state with funds, manpower, opinion, information and expertise."

But al-Qaida in Iraq -- the group that claims allegiance to Osama bin Laden's goals -- has been put on the defensive. Some Sunni insurgent groups have publicly split with it, distancing themselves from its bombings of Iraqi civilians and accusing al-Qaida of trying to strong-arm people into joining.

One influential faction, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, openly helped U.S. forces in new offensives against al-Qaida in and around Baghdad, and some Sunni tribes turned against it in Anbar province.

U.S. forces have focused on al-Qaida-linked fighters in their security clampdowns in Baghdad and "belts" around the city in recent weeks. That has increased U.S. casualties, but insurgent and militia attacks appear to have fallen.

Still, bloodshed continues. A car bomb Thursday killed 17 people and wounded 28 when it blasted a photographers' shop in a Shiite part of Baghdad, where a bride and groom were inside getting their wedding photos taken as relatives and friends waited outside, said an official at the nearest police station.

The bride and groom were among the wounded, with minor injuries, said an official at the hospital where the victims were taken.

North of Baghdad, insurgents attacked an Iraqi police convoy, killing five policemen. Other police in the convoy opened fire, killing six civilian passers-by, said a police official.

In other attacks around Iraq on Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded by a roadside bombing in south Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It said the bomb was an explosively formed penetrator, a type of weapon the Americans say is provided to Shiite extremists by the Iranians. Iran denies the allegation.

Another U.S. soldier who was wounded during combat operations in western Baghdad on Thursday also died, the military said in a statement today.