World

New Al Qaeda Video Released

April 13, 2006 / 9:15 PM EDT / CBS/AP

In a video posted Thursday on the Internet, Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri praised insurgents in Iraq — particularly Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — and called on all Muslims to support them.

The video is 28 minutes long, carries an Islamic calendar date corresponding to November 2005, and in the video, al-Zawahri mentions an Oct. 23 earthquake that hit Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Al-Zawahri has appeared in at least three videotapes filmed since November, all of them aired on the Al-Jazeera news network. Thursday's video, which appears to be surfacing for the first time, turned up on a Web forum used by Islamic militants to issue public statements and videos.

In the video, al-Zawahri is sitting, wearing a white turban and a grey robe with a microphone pinned to it. An automatic weapon is leaning against a brown backdrop behind him.

"The Islamic nation must support the heroic mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Iraq, who are fighting on the very front line for the dignity of Islam," said al-Zawahri, waving his right hand toward the camera. "To my brother mujahedeen in Iraq, I say, Stay firm. Stay together. Your enemy has begun to falter, so don't stop pursuing him until he flees defeated."

He called on Muslims to support his "beloved brother" Al-Zarqawi, who heads the terrorist group al Qaeda in Iraq. "I have lived with him up close, and have seen nothing but good from him," al-Zawahri said.

In other recent developments:

Insurgents ambushed a convoy of Iraqi police late Thursday en route to a U.S. base to pick up new vehicles, police said. There was no casualty report available. The attack occurred at 8 p.m. near Taji, just north of Baghdad, according to police Lt. Haider Kadim. U.S. and Iraqi forces engaged the attackers, he said. The police were coming from Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, to pick up new vehicles, according to officials in the Shiite shrine city.

Baghdad police say at least 13 people have been killed in a car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood Thursday. Authorities say a car was parked near a vegetable market in the Shula neighborhood when it exploded. It's the second car bombing this month in that part of the Iraqi capital. An attack on April fifth wounded 13 people.

A top Shiite lawmaker said Thursday that names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can meet next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will convene as announced. The next session of parliament was called for Monday to push past a long-standing political stalemate over who should be the next prime minister. But members of the dominant Shiite alliance questioned holding the meeting without first designating all top posts. The alliance has so far stood behind its candidate, current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, but cracks in support have begun to show.

Officials reported that at least seven people were killed — including a U.S. soldier — in scattered shootings and bombings, and six bodies were found.

Al-Zawahri — an Egyptian who is Osama bin Laden's deputy in al Qaeda and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan — said he was making the video to mark the fourth anniversary of the December 2001 battle of Tora Bora, in which U.S. forces besieged bin Laden and al Qaeda fighters in mountainous caves of Afghanistan.

He denounced President Bush as the "Caesar of Washington" and accused him of lying about progress in the war on terror.

"Bush, son of Bush, eliminating Israel is the duty of every believer," al-Zawahri said. "Beggarly clerics... and every bankrupt propaganda machine is trying to convince the people to bring change by peaceful means, but the Islamic nation knows that its path is jihad (holy war) and the bearing of arms."

"By God, we're supposed to stick to peaceful means while the enemies of Islam engage in every violent, barbaric and base action and Israel is armed to the teeth with every sort of conventional and non-conventional weapon?" said al-Zawahri.

"If we commit to peaceful action," he continued, "they will demand we adhere to international laws and treaties that mean nothing to them. If we adhere to that, they will ask us to impose constraint on what they call terrorism and war on Israel. Then if we adhere to that, they will demand we recognize Israel and establish normal relations with it."

He pointed to Israeli opposition to the Islamic militant group Hamas' entering Palestinian elections. He did not mention Hamas' victory in the voting, a possible indication the video was made before the January elections.

In the last al-Zawahri video to be aired — on March 4 — he congratulated Hamas on its victory and offered support.

Al-Zawahri appeared in two other videos in January. On Jan. 19, bin Laden released an audiotape, parts of which were aired on al-Jazeera — the first message from the al Qaeda leader in more than a year.

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