Al-Qaeda Spread Viral Videos Through Mobile Phones

Terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda are distributing viral video clips through mobile phones, according to reports from the Associated Press.

An announcement was apparently posted late Friday by Al-Qaeda’s media wing, Al-Sahab, on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. The statement read, “The elite jihadi media group presents the first batch of al-Sahab videos to be downloaded to cell phones.”

Eight previously unavailable videos are believed to have been specially encoded for mobile, making them ideal for viral distribution through Bluetooth, infra-red and wireless file transfer – technologies which have become increasingly popular in a region with limited broadband penetration.

A message from al-Qaida’s No. 2 figure, bal-Zawahri, introducing the videos read, “I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the people of the nations.”

According to Associated Press, Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors militant messages, said that this was not the first time that the organisation had released videos designed for cell phones.