CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged Muslims to
intensify their resistance against the US and warned of new terror strikes in a
video aired by CNN early Monday on the fifth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks.
Al-Zawahir said the Persian Gulf and Israel would be al-Qaida's next targets.
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Al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, shown here
in this videotape from December 2005, purportedly issued a new video
Monday in which he warns of new terror strikes. The release coincided with
the fifth anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington. In the
video, al-Zawahri addresses the United States: 'You should worry about
your presence in the (Persian) Gulf, and the second place you should worry
about is Israel.' [AP]
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The film was the latest in a flurry of al-Qaida videos released ahead of the
anniversary. But unlike the others, it appeared to be new with references to
Israel's bombardment of Lebanon this summer and the capture of Israeli soldiers
by Hezbollah and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
"You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting
you," said al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's No 2, addressing the US "You should worry
about your presence in the (Persian) Gulf, and the second place you should worry
about is Israel."
The video shows the Egyptian-born Al-Zawahri dressed in white and seated in
front of a wall of bookshelves.
"Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster," he said.
"And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with Allah's
permission and guidance."
Al-Zawahri criticized the West for supplying Israel with weapons,and
called on the Muslim world "to rush with everything at its disposal
to the aid of its Muslim brothers in Lebanon and Gaza."
Late Sunday, another videotape posted on the Internet, purportedly by
al-Qaida, showed previously unseen footage of a smiling Bin Laden and other
commanders in a mountain camp apparently planning the Sept 11 attacks on New
York and Washington.
That tape's documentary-like retrospective of the five years since the
attacks was unusually long - 91 minutes, split into two segments - and
sophisticated in its production quality compared to previous al-Qaida videos.
The footage - with English subtitles - surfaced on the eve of the
fifth anniversary of the attacks, on a Web site that frequently airs messages
from bin Laden's terror network.
"Planning for Sept 11 did not take place behind computer monitors or radar
screens, nor inside military command and control centers, but was surrounded
with divine protection in an atmosphere brimming with brotherliness ... and love
for sacrificing life," an unidentified narrator said.
