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Al-Zawahri: U.S. War on Iraq Aims At Controlling Arab World
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“America and her allies must know that their crimes will not pass without punishment.”
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DOHA
, October 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Al-Qaeda
network is preparing fresh strikes against the
United States
and its allies, especially France and
Germany
, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahri warned on the Arab satellite TV
channel Al-Jazeera on Tuesday, October 8.
Regarding
an upcoming strike on
Iraq
, Zawahri said that the military campaign against
Iraq
has other aims that extend to the entire Arab and Islamic world.
It
aims to destroy the military forces near
Israel
and also emphasize the Israeli military supremacy in the region, as it
will alone have weapons of mass destruction, Al-Zawahri said, according
to Al-Jazeera’s website.
He
said that the U.S. Congress has decided to split
Saudi Arabia
to different regions, including an eastern region, which has the major
oil field and which will be under direct
U.S.
control.
The
threat came in a broadcast recording which the Qatar-based television
identified as the voice of Al-Zawahri, who is wanted along with Osama
bin Laden for last year’s September 11 terror attacks on the
United States
.
“
America
and her allies must know that their crimes will not pass without
punishment. We advise them to quickly leave
Palestine
, the
Arabian Peninsula
and all the Muslim countries before they lose everything,” the voice
said on the tape.
“We
have delivered some messages to the allies of
America
so that they cease their involvement in the American crusade... notably
a message to
Germany
and another to
France
. But if these doses are not sufficient, we are ready to increase
them,” the voice said.
He
said Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, both wanted by the
United States
, were in good health. It was not clear where or when the tape was
recorded.
On
October 3,
U.S.
military officials in
Afghanistan
sought to discredit reports that Zawahri had been killed.
Russia
’s ITAR-TASS news agency cited unnamed sources as saying that Zawahri
was killed in a special operation carried out by unidentified
individuals in
Afghanistan
. It did not give any date.
“I
do not have any information relating to this,”
U.S.
military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Roger King told AFP. “As far as
I know, this is a rumor and nothing more.”
In
Washington
, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer also said “we have nothing to
substantiate this information."
However,
on September 25, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Hani Al Sabai
of the London-based
Al-Maqrizi
Center
for Historical Studies saying that Zawahri, has appeared in a new video
believed to have been uncovered in
Pakistan
by
U.S.
intelligence services.
Al-Sharq
Al-Awsat quoted Egyptian Islamist Hani al-Sabai of the London-based
Al-Maqrizi Centre for Historical Studies as saying that the “tape
dates from last July 2, at 10:30, and proves without any doubt that
Zawahri is alive and in Afghanistan.”
According
to
Sabai
,
U.S.
intelligence agents probably found the video in the apartment of Ramzi
bin al-Shaiba, a top suspect in the planning of last year’s September
11 attacks.
Zawahri,
an Egyptian physician and a leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was
said to be the number two man in Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network and its
chief financier.
The
United States
has offered a five million dollar reward for information leading to his
capture.
Zawahri’s
statements come within a week of several statements issued by Al-Qaeda
and Taliban members, among others. Earlier, Mullah Omar, and Gulbudin
Hekmatyar had issued statements in the event of the passing of one year
on the
U.S.
attacks on
Afghanistan
.
Al-Qaeda
had also published a list of 57 names of detainees held by the
U.S.
in
Guantanamo
Bay
,
Cuba
.
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