Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two figure in al Qaeda, has appeared in a new videotape aired on Al Jazeera, ridiculing U.S. forces as stuck in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. "In both countries, if they continue they will bleed to death and if they withdraw they lose everything," said Zawahri, the right-hand man of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "East and south Afghanistan have become an open arena for the Mujahideen (jihad fighters). The enemy are limited to their capitals," the Egyptian-born Zawahri said on Thursday. "The Americans are hiding in their trenches and refuse to come out to face the Mujahideen, as the Mujahideen shell and fire on them, and cut roads off around them. Their defence is only to bomb by air, wasting U.S. money as they kick up dust."
Zawahri, wearing a white turban with a machine gun at his side, spoke to camera for several minutes in the tape, broadcast two days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities that Washington blames on al Qaeda. Turning to Iraq, where U.S. forces are battling an uprising against the U.S.-backed government, Zawahri said insurgents had turned Washington's plans for the oil-rich country upside down. "In Islamic Iraq the Mujahideen (jihad fighters) have turned America's plan head over heels. The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become just a matter of time," he said.
Al Jazeera, an influential Arabic broadcaster, did not say how it obtained the tape. But it said Zawahri had referred to the Darfur conflict in Sudan, suggesting the video was made in recent months. The al Qaeda leader cited the crisis as an example of U.S. desires to split the Arab and Muslim world, Al Jazeera said. "In Kabul, the Americans and peacekeeping forces are hiding from the shells of the Mujahideen and expect martyrdom (suicide) attacks at every moment," Zawahri said in Thursday's tape. |