|
CAIRO: Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahiri warned Tuesday in
his latest audiotape that the terror group still plans to target
Western countries involved in the Iraq War.
The tape, which appeared on an Islamic website,
could not be immediately confirmed as authentic, but the voice
sounded like past audiotapes from al-Zawahiri.
When asked if the group still plans to attack
Western countries that participated in the Iraq War, al-Zawahiri
said, “My answer is, yes! We think that any country [joining]
aggression on Muslims must be deterred.”
This was the second time that al-Zawahiri
answered questions submitted on Islamic militant websites by al-Qaeda
followers, critics and journalists last winter.
Al-Qaeda announced in December that al-Zawahiri
would answer questions from the public. Queries were submitted to
the main Islamist website until January 16.
In the tape, he also criticized Muslims for
failing to support Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and elsewhere,
urging all Muslims to hurry to the battlefields of jihad (holy war),
especially in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the
September 11 attacks in 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people in
the US cities of New York and Washington. Its network in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Algeria regularly set off bombs in crowded urban
areas taking thousands of lives.
-- Xinhua
|
