Path Of Blood Is A Harrowing Look Inside Al-Qaeda, Shot By Jihadis Themselves

Path of Blood: New documentary explores jihadi extremism, radicalisation and al-Qaeda's target, Saudi Arabia

Aimen Dean was just 19 when he pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden – until the brutal reality of mass murder led him to be flipped by the Qataris, and return to Afghanistan as a spy for MI6

In the years following 9/11, documentaries such as Restrepo and Armadillo gave us intimate and unflinching accounts of the daily lives of troops fighting the war in Afghanistan.

Jonathan Hacker’s Path of Blood now offers a similar kind of insider’s eye – only this time we’re taken behind the scenes of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, during their bid to topple the Saudi government in 2003.

Raw, uneditorialised footage, shot by the jihadis themselves, captures the young men at play and in action, complicating the popular image of fanatical “death to the West” extremists. The overall effect is harrowing and fitfully hopeful.

By showing how the Saudis quashed the insurgency using tough counter-terrorism measures, and then offered a rehabilitation programme to jihadis capable of changing, the film offers a valuable lesson about how to address the frightening phenomenon of radicalisation and terrorism.

Path of Blood is in cinemas now, and available on demand on iTunes on 16th July 

Read the full story here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/al-qaeda-jihadi-saudi-arabia-bin-laden-path-of-blood-a8441746.html