New York, Aug 23: The fifth and final installment of al Qaeda video tapes, being telecast by CNN today, has evidence of terrorist network's global reach and links to other groups. One video tape shows Arab fighters in Chechnya ambushing a Russian convoy and another records Jihadi fighters in 1990 in Myanmar training with an Arabic-speaking instructor who tells them, "We are fighting because it is an Islamic fight".

One of the tapes shows fighters in Eritrea proclaiming an Islamic battle to drive infidels out of the country. Others are from Uzbekistan, Algeria and Bosnia, showing similar scenes.
CNN says it obtained 64 al Qaeda tapes from a source in Afghanistan who said they were found in a house where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had stayed. Nearly all the tapes pre-date last year's September 11 attacks in the US.
Rohan Gunaratna, an al Qaeda expert, says the tapes provide proof that al Qaeda bound itself to similar groups, becoming what he calls "an organisation of organisations".
In fact, gunaratna says, this is the single most important thing to be inferred from the video archive. "It gives a comprehensive picture of al Qaeda's strategic gift, of al Qaeda's global reach. It very clearly demonstrates that al Qaeda is waging a universal jihad campaign." Bureau Report