Help Wanted : Communications Dept.

London, 3 Oct. (AKI) - The al-Qaeda terror network appears to have launched a recruitment drive, posting adverts on a website commonly used by Islamist groups, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reports. The advert says there are a number of communications-related vacant positions, which would involve compiling written and audiovisual reports by militant groups operating in Iraq and gathering footage from satellite TV channels on extremist Islamic groups and their activities in Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya.

According to the 'Global Islamic Media Group' al-Qaeda affiliated website, the terror network is also looking for a video programmer and a researcher for news on Muslims around the world, as well as language specialists with an excellent oral and grammatical knowledge of Arabic and English.

The advert says the group's PR department will follow up applications and contact candidates through private email messages, and it advised applicants to turn to God for guidance and pray before submitting their application.

It did not specify the rank or salary of the posts, but did say: "Every Muslim should know that his life is not his own; it is the property of this violated nation for whom men have shed their blood. No other issue should take precedence over work for the Umma [Community of the faithful within Islam]; it is an obligation for every Muslim."

However, evidence of complaints from other members of al-Qaeda suggest the pay and working conditions offered by the terror network are not particularly good, such as those in a letter written to the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, found by the US military in a raid on a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. In it, an al-Qaeda soldier calling himself 'Abu Zayd' calls his work conditions "deplorable" and complains about bad pay, bad housing and the marginalisation of non-Iraqi fighters.

The nature of the jobs advertised, coupled with the recent launch of a weekly al-Qaeda TV news bulletin, 'Voice of the Caliphate', suggest the network is stepping up its communications operation.