Corniness is back in al-Qaeda’s promotional videos
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Version 0 of 1. The aggressive media campaign by the Islamic State and other militant groups has received a lot of attention this year as they’ve terrorized Iraq and Syria, murdered Westerners on video and taken to social media to promote their views. But another aspect of their media campaign has been largely overlooked: Corniness is back. The video above, posted on Wednesday, purportedly shows militant fighters with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. With music in the background, the clip shows masked snipers opening fire, wearing “ghillie suits” that help keep them hidden in the field and using rifle scopes and other modern equipment. But it also shows a bizarre sequence of fighters doing flips, running through obstacles courses and practicing hand-to-hand combat. Some of it is even in slow motion, enhancing the weirdness. Here are a few key .gifs: An assessment by the Soufan Group, which tracks militant organizations, says the video honors the apparent death of Abu Yousef al-Turki, an al-Nusra Front leader, who was reportedly killed in U.S.-led military strikes this week near the city of Aleppo, Syria. Analysts with the Soufan Group said al-Turki, 47, originally from Bursa, Turkey, was known as the group’s main sniper and likely trained others in the video. The al-Nusra video likely tries to emulate the Hollywood aspects of its rival militant group, the Islamic State, analysts said. But it falls short: In including the obstacle course and fighters doing cartwheels and flips, it reverts back to tactics used in old al-Qaeda videos, which Soufan Group analysts said were roundly mocked. “Western recruits,” they said, “are as unlikely to be swayed by slow motion calisthenics as western security officials are to be concerned by the training on the video.” |