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WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri launched a blistering
attack on the United Nations (UN) Wednesday, calling it the enemy of
Islam and Muslims in an online audio file.
“The UN is an enemy of Islam and Muslims: it
is the one which codified and legitimized the setting up of the
state of Israel and its taking over of the Muslims’ lands,”
Zawahiri said.
The audio released via the monitoring group
IntelCenter was the first installment in a two-part series to answer
about 100 questions put to Zawahiri, known as al-Qaeda’s
ideological thinker, via online militant forums.
He grouped his replies into four: the killing of
innocents, Iran, Egypt and Palestine, and denied that the al-Qaeda
network had been responsible for the loss of innocent Muslim lives.
“We haven’t killed the innocents, not in
Baghdad, nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else,”
Zawahiri said. “And if there is any innocent who was killed in the
Mujahedeen’s operations, it was either an unintentional error, or
out of necessity.”
Zawahiri also slammed the United Nations,
accusing it of double standards.
The United Nations “is the one which considers
Chechnya an inseparable part of Crusader Russia, and consider Ceuta
and Melilla inseparable parts of Crusader Spain,” he said,
referring to two Spanish enclaves in North Africa claimed by
Morocco.
The terror network’s number two also said that
its leader Osama bin Laden, who has evaded capture by the US
military since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,
was still alive.
“Sheikh Osama bin Laden is healthy and well by
the grace of Allah,” Zawahiri said. “The prejudiced ones always
try to spread false information about him being ill.”
-- AFP
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