Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for the US command, mocked Al Zarqawi as the previously unseen footage showed a smiling Al Qaeda leader first firing single shots from a US-made M-249 light machine gun. A frown creeps across Al Zarqawi’s face as the weapon jams. He looks at it, confused, then summons another fighter.
“It’s supposed to be automatic fire. He’s shooting single shots,” Lynch said. “Something is wrong with his machine gun. He looks down, can’t figure out, calls his friend to come unblock the stoppage and get the weapon firing again.”
By contrast, the edited version which the militants posted on the Web showed what happened only after the fighter fixed the weapon - a fierce-looking Al Zarqawi confidently blasting away with bursts of automatic gunfire.
His fellow fighters and associates appear similarly inept in the newly released footage. One reaches out to grab a just-fired weapon by the barrel, apparently unaware that it would burn his hand. The camera quickly pans to the ground and then away.
“His close associates around him ... do things like grab the hot barrel of the machine gun and burn themselves,” Lynch said. “Makes you wonder” about their military skills.
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