Kathy Gannon • Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, 22 June 2003 — An Arabic-speaking guerrilla, his face wrapped in a black turban, said the Al-Qaeda terror network was behind suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and warned of more attacks in a new videotape.

If authentic, the video would be the first Al-Qaeda claim of responsibility for the bombings of expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh on May 12, which killed 35 people, and the attacks in Casablanca that killed 43 people and 12 suicide bombers.

The videotape was obtained by the Associated Press from a senior intelligence official for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan rebel leader allied with Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

The man on the scratchy videocassette, who identified himself as Abu Haris Abdul Hakim, said he was speaking on behalf of Al-Qaeda, the Taleban and Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e-Islami organization. But he did not mention either his nationality or his affiliation.

“The recent attacks in Riyadh and Morocco were planned and they were part of our operations. You will see more such attacks in the future,” he said.

The intelligence official confirmed that the speaker on the tape was speaking for Hekmatyar’s party, which the official said was working with Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.

In the video, the speaker is seen seated on a straw-matted floor in a brick mud hut with a Kalashnikov assault rifle by his side as he read from several sheets of paper. “Those people who say our jihad is wrong and that we are not active are fooling themselves. Osama is alive and in Afghanistan,” he said. “We are alive and have started operations again.”

The date the video was shot was impossible to confirm, but at one point, Hakim holds up a crudely written sign that says June 14, an apparent reference to the date of filming.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif and US officials have blamed Al-Qaeda for the Riyadh attacks. Moroccan authorities say an international terrorism ring carried out the Casablanca attacks and they are looking at possible links to Al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, US-led troops and Afghan militiamen launched a massive operation yesterday against suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. US-led coalition forces were transported by air and ground to positions along the border to block the extremists’ escape routes, US military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said in a statement from the coalition air base at Bagram, north of Kabul.

“Coalition forces and soldiers from the 1st Corps, Afghan military forces are conducting a combat and civil affairs operation in the Goshta and surrounding districts in Nangarhar province, east of Jalalabad,” he said.

Goshta is about 30 km (20 miles) from the border with Pakistan.

Nangarhar Gov. Haji Din Mohammad said the US troops would be taking control of the border and mountain areas rather than searching houses. “Over the other side of the border, thousands of Pakistani troops arrived two days ago. They have tanks,” he added.

The presence of Pakistani soldiers could not be immediately confirmed in Islamabad. — Additional input from Agence France Presse