BAGHDAD, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The top leader of al-Qaida militant group in Iraq announced in an audio message a new plan to free the group's jailed members and to assault the country's judges and investigators.
"We are setting off a new stage of our struggle, with the launch of a plan named 'breaking the walls,'" said the audio massage purportedly from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the top leader of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).
Al-Baghdadi said the priority of his plan is to free the " Muslim prisoners, as well as chase and eliminate the judges and investigators and their guards."
He also urged the Sunni tribal leaders to send their men to join al-Qaida, who are returning to their previous strongholds. The al-Qaida militants fled their strongholds after some former anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups turned against them due to their indiscriminate killings of both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.
"On the occasion of the return of the Islamic State to the regions that we had evacuated from, I urge you to send your sons to join the mujahideen (holy warriors) to defend your religion and honor," al-Baghdadi said.
He also threatened the United States by saying "you will see them (Qaida militants) at the heart of your country with God's willing, since our war against you has just started."
In May 2010, al-Qaida in Iraq chose Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al- Quraishi to head the ISI after the killing of its two former leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Musri and Abu Omer al-Baghdadi, by Iraqi and U.S. forces in a military operation on April 18, 2010.
