Zarqawi Shows Face for First Time Since Start of Iraq Insurgency

A man believed to be al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, yesterday showed his face publicly for the first time since the insurgency began three years ago.

In a video posted on the internet, he spoke directly to camera. Dressed in black and his chest covered with ammunition pouches, he made an appeal to Iraqi Sunnis to support his fight against the US-led coalition and its Iraqi supporters.

He was shown striding through the desert with a group of men, all dressed in black and waving automatic rifles. He was also shown firing one of the weapons.

US intelligence officials were last night analysing the video. An official said that Zarqawi appeared to have decided that the propaganda value of the video outweighed the risk of giving US and Iraqi security forces an up-to-date photograph.

The US will run off photographs quickly and distribute them among their own soldiers and Iraqi forces.

The video was dated last Friday.

Zarqawi, who is Jordanian-born, has made audiotapes over the last three years but not a video. US and Iraqi forces have been hunting for him using a picture obtained about 18 months ago when they arrested his alleged driver and bodyguard.

He has claimed responsibility for some of the worst atrocities in Iraq, from suicide bombs that have resulted in high death tolls and the beheading of western and Iraqi hostages. He also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Jordan.

The propaganda video appears to be aimed at bolstering his support in Iraq after media reports that his influence was on the wane and that his actions had even offended Osama bin Laden.

One of Bin Laden's deputies, in a message allegedly intercepted by western intelligence, apparently warned Zarqawi that beheadings in Iraq were alienating public opinion.

The new video of Zarqawi emerged only days after an audiotape from Bin Laden was released calling for support in his battle against the west.

Zarqawi represents the most extreme section of the insurgency and the US has tried to divide him from the more nationalist-minded and, by comparison, more moderate parts of the insurgency.

In the video address he described the US-led forces as crusaders and predicted that they would not defeat the insurgents.

Zarqawi said: "Your mujahideen sons were able to confront the most ferocious of crusader campaigns on a Muslim state. They have stood in the face of this onslaught for three years. When the crusader enemy entered Iraq, he intended to control the Islamic nation and supported the Zionist state."

Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, has been accused by the US of trying to stir up civil war between Sunnis and Shias and part of his address appeared to be aimed primarily at Sunnis.