Al Qaeda goes on internet recruiting drive, calling for would-be suicide bombers

GlobalPost

Al Qaeda wants you.

The terror group has taken to the internet in a recruitment drive, posting job advertisements on several jihadist web sites and even offering training for suicide bombers to target the US, Israel and France, according to the Daily Mail

"The aim of this training is to continue with our brothers who are seeking to carry out operations that make for great killing and slaughtering of the enemies of Islam," the advertisement, attributed to Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, reportedly read.

"Their identity must be, according to priority, American, Israeli, French and British," the ad said of the volunteers.

"It is clear now that the individual jihad, or what is called the lone wolf, has become more widespread and its features have started showing, in summary, it is a complete jihadist operation to be carried out by a single bomber."

The ad said that the targets of the attacks were "economic, military and media interests of the enemy."

Meanwhile, Al Qaeda fighters are reportedly making headway in their fight to expand in southern and eastern regions of Yemen.

Fox News and CNN both quote US officials as saying, however, that the threat to the US remained unchanged.

"We work on the assumption that [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] is coming after America every day," the official reportedly said.

The militants, the course added, are "extremists who joined a violent death cult. Their goal is to martyr themselves."

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently opened up about US efforts to target Al Qaeda's online recruitment activities.

According to a separate CNN report, Clinton discussed the operations of a dedicated unit within the Department of State that works with the intelligence community and the Defense Department, describing it as a "digital outreach team of tech savvy specialists, fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Somali."

The unit, she said, was "patrolling the Web and using social media and other tools to expose the inherent contradictions in Al Qaeda's propaganda and also bring to light the abuses committed by Al Qaeda, particularly the continuing brutal attacks on Muslim civilians."

And a number of Al Qaeda leaders have been killed in the US drone strikes recently, including Abu Yahia al-Libi, the group's second in command.

More from GlobalPost: Abu Yahia al-Libi, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, killed by CIA drones in Pakistan — officials

However, CNN quoted a source as saying the group had worked to adjust its command structure to ensure "redundancies," so that there was no "single point of failure" that could stop the group.

For example, there were now four independent commanders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

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