Al-Qaida touts forest arson as terrorism

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Terrorist have used car bombs and flown planes into buildings to cause pain and destruction.

Now al-Qaida is telling its followers that the Southwest is like one big pile of kindling and that terrorists should burn it down.

The terror threat is in an al-Qaida newsletter online called "Inspire."

"These threats are threats, and we are at war still with an enemy that is bent on inflicting harm on us," New Mexico Department of Homeland Security spokesman Nicholas Piatek said.

Those threats are in the English version al-Qaida newsletter that surfaced recently on the internet.

It calls on sympathizers to start wildfires giving them a step-by-step how-to guide, even highlighting the American Southwest as a region ready to go up in flames

Not only did the newsletter talk about starting fires, it talked about which conditions would be best to get them started.

The newsletter suggests dry, windy conditions to get fires to spread, and it shows how to make a timed fire bomb with gasoline and Christmas lights.

" Fire danger across New Mexico is very high right now," said Dan Ware with New Mexico State Forestry. "We could have a catastrophic wildfire right now."

Ware said this is just another reason for everyone to be on the lookout.

"We want them to be vigilant no matter what they are seeing," Ware said. "That includes any suspicious behavior, kids playing with matches or fireworks or arson and terrorism."

State Homeland Security said it does not have any information that New Mexico has been specifically targeted by al-Qaida, but they still have contacted police around New Mexico to warn them.

That same newsletter praised the Las Cruces-born radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki for his service to al-Qaida calling him a hero and a martyr.

A drone missile killed Al-Awlaki last September in Yemen.