Afghan president calls for arrest of al Qaeda No. 2
Al-Zawahiri video urges young Afghans to oust Americans
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Posted: 7:37 a.m. EDT (11:37 GMT)
(CNN) -- A new video message from the No. 2 figure in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was posted on Islamic Web sites Wednesday evening.
In the video, al-Zawahiri, speaking in Arabic, addresses his message to the people of Afghanistan and talks about what he terms "crimes against the Afghan people by the Americans."
He claims to have recorded the message, which lasts 3 minutes and 44 seconds, the day after deadly riots in Kabul on May 29.
In the video he calls on young men in Kabul's universities to rise up and "join in with the Mujahedeen forces in attacking the invaders and freeing Muslim Afghanistan."
Al-Zawahiri does not mention the death of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7.
Unlike recent messages from al-Zawahiri, which appeared to have been directed at the American people, the latest video does not have English subtitles. Al-Zawahiri spoke in Arabic, and Web sites carried transcripts of his message in Arabic, Pashtu and Farsi, two other languages widely spoken in Afghanistan.
The tape makes references to what al-Zawahiri characterized as the desecration of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, at Bagram, a U.S. base in Afghanistan, and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. It also references perceived insults against Muslims in Denmark, France and Italy.
In the video al-Zawahiri mentions by name former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, along with writer Salman Rushdie, who was condemned to death by Iranian clerics in 1988. |
