A major Iraqi insurgent group claimed Friday to have successfully built and tested a rocket with a range of 20 kilometers, naming it after a 14-year-old Iraqi girl allegedly raped and killed by a US soldier.
In video footage posted online, the Islamic Army in Iraq said the "Abeer" rocket carried a payload of 20 kilograms of explosives - enough to level a house.
"We called it 'Abeer' to remind the Islamic nation of the wounds of our sister ... whose virginity was violated by the worshippers of the cross," the Islamic Army, said in a statement posted together with the footage on a Web site frequently used by insurgent groups to publish announcements.
"Worshippers of the cross" was an apparent reference to Christians.
The nearly seven-minute video shows two masked men in blue overalls assembling and welding the rocket inside what looks like a machinery shop. It was unclear who shot the footage, first posted on Wednesday, or when.
