On Wednesday, a campaign was urged by a senior al-Qaeda offical to engage the Taliban in the kidnapping of foreign civilians in Afghanistan in a move to force the U.S. led military forces to negotiate prisoner exchanges, according to the Australian media.

The directive has been issued by veteran al Qaeda adviser Mustafa Hamid, also known as Abu Walid al Masri, and stems from the U.S. detentions in Guantanamo Bay, former counter-terrorism analyst Leah Farrall told the Australian newspaper on Wednesday.

Farrall, who worked as a counter-terrorism intelligence analyst for the Australian Federal Police, said she had uncovered the al Qaeda internet document, written in late July, while completing a PhD on al Qaeda at Monash University in Australia.

The document, "The U.S. Soldier in Afghanistan - the first step for the release of all prisoners of the war on terror", argues the capture of a U.S. soldier earlier this year should be used as a precedent in a campaign of abducting Western civilians to negotiate the release of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners.

"Directing his article at the Taliban's leadership, Masri said it was time for them to start targeting foreign civilians as well as military personnel," Farrall wrote in the Australian.

Source: Reuters