Cairo – Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s No. 2 man, condemned U.N. troops in Lebanon as enemies of Islam and warned that the terrorist group will strike the Persian Gulf and Israel, suggesting new fronts in its war against the West in a video Monday marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The video of al- Zawahri was one of three al-Qaeda videos released for the anniversary, showing increasingly sophisticated techniques as the group tries to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force five years into the U.S. war on terrorism.
One video showed images of the planes striking the World Trade Center, lionizing the 19 suicide hijackers as men “who changed history.” Another was a 91-minute documentary-style video in which Osama bin Laden is seen smiling and chatting with the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp.
Al-Zawahri spoke in the third and longest video, warning Americans of more attacks to come.
“We have repeatedly warned you and offered a truce with you. Now we have all the legal and rational justification to continue to fight you until your power is destroyed or you give in and surrender,” he said. “The days are pregnant and giving birth to new events.”
He also called on his followers to attack the U.S. in response to its jailing of a prominent Muslim cleric.
“I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman,” he said.
Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric from Egypt, was convicted in the U.S. of seditious conspiracy for his advisory role in a plot to blow up five New York City landmarks, including the United Nations in 1995. He is being held at the federal Supermax prison in Florence.
Al-Zawahri’s comments also pointed to new fronts for al-Qaeda attacks. The terrorist network has had few operations in Lebanon, Israel or the Gulf region – except for Saudi Arabia.
He urged his followers to attack Western targets to stop what he said was the stealing of oil from Muslim countries.
Lebanon and Israel have warned of a possible growing al-Qaeda presence.
Al-Zawahri also denounced the U.N. peacekeeping force now moving into Lebanon under terms set out in a U.N. cease-fire resolution that on Aug. 14 ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. He suggested Muslims should prevent the troops’ deployment.
“What is so terrible in this resolution … is that it approves the existence of the Jewish state and isolates our mujahedeen in Palestine from Muslims in Lebanon,” he said.
