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Al Qaida No. 2 Ayman Al-Zawahri. (Reuters)
Last update - 23:51 03/04/2008
Al-Qaida No. 2 vows to strike Jews worldwide
By News Agencies
Tags: Muslims, Jews, Al-Qaida 

Al-Qaida's second-in-command on Wednesday vowed to attack Jews both within and outside Israel, and predicted that a United States withdrawal from Iraq would cause Islamic militant power to grow and threaten Jerusalem.

"I expect the Jihadi influence to spread after the Americans' exit from Iraq, and to move towards Jerusalem," Ayman Al-Zawahri said in response to questions compiled by Islamist Web sites.

"We promise our Muslim brothers that we will do our utmost to strike Jews in Israel and abroad with help and guidance from God," he said to those asking when attacks on Israel would take place.
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Last week, the Al-Qaida leader called on Muslims to strike Israeli, Jewish and American interests in revenge for Israel's ground incursion in the Gaza Strip in early March.

Al-Zawahri on Wednesday also said that Osama bin Laden was well and reports he was sick were false.

"Sheikh Osama bin Laden is in good health," the militant leader said. "The ill-intentioned always try to circulate false reports about him being sick."

The audio message, which was accompanied by a 46-page English transcript, was the first installment of answers to a raft of online questions and focused mainly on future al-Qaida efforts elsewhere in the region, particularly Egypt.

Al-Zawahri, who, like Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan, also denounced the United Nations.

"The United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims," he said. He defended attacks on UN offices in an apparent reference to twin bomb attacks on UN buildings in Algiers which killed 41 people in December and the 2003 bombing of a UN building in Baghdad which killed 22.

In response to criticism Wednesday about the organization's notoriously brutal tactics, Al-Zawahri maintained that Al-Qaida does not kill innocents.

"We haven't killed the innocents, not in Baghdad nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else," he said according to the English transcript which, like the audio message, appeared on Web sites linked to the group.

He also predicted the end of the Saudi state, which is swimming against the tide of history and the government of his native Egypt, which he called "a corrupt, rotten regime [that] cannot possibly continue."

Many of the questions he chose to answer focused on restarting the jihad in Egypt, which Zawahri himself helped begin and was crushed by the government in the 1990s.

"The days will reveal to you what you didn't know, and news will come to you from those who didn't have it," he said quoting an old Arabic proverb, about when the jihad would begin again in Egypt, and counseled patience.

Egypt's plainclothes State Security officers and uniformed police were declared permissible to kill in the struggle for Egypt and he hinted that he had supporters in the Egyptian army, like the man who assassinated former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

"The Egyptian army which produced Khalid al-Islambouli ... continues to be full of those whose hearts boil with jealousy for Islam and Muslims and who long for the opportunity to remove the corrupt gang which rules Egypt," he said.

Though the tape could not be independently verified, the message bore the logo of Al-Qaida's media arm, al-Sahab, and appeared on Web sites linked to the organization.


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      1.   There must be a Palestinian state by the end of 2008 OR the...... 03:17  |  MOE 03/04/08
      2.   Jerusalem will be free with or without a Palestinian state!!!!!!! 03:18  |  Mohammed 03/04/08
      3.   We must support a Palestinian state in 1967 areas 03:19  |  Jean Van Daem* 03/04/08
      4.   FREE PALESTINE 03:19  |  *Ben Jabo* 03/04/08
      5.   AL QUAIDA DOES NOT KILL INOCENTS 03:30  |  zionist forever 03/04/08
      6.   What a Guy! The religion of Peace delivers a peaceful 05:54  |  Doc Holliday 03/04/08
      7.   I Hope That Bush... 06:17  |  Yosemite 03/04/08
      8.   What! Target even Good Jews like... 06:57  |  Steve 03/04/08
      9.   Jews vs Zionists, anti-Jewish vs anti-Zionist, 06:59  |  Nahum 03/04/08
      10.   "We love Jews: just the Zionists with yarmulkas 07:09  |  Steve 03/04/08
      11.   Al-Zawahri well if he believed all he says then why is he hiding 07:30  |  Dish It Out 03/04/08
      12.   Muslim Brotherhood ? the new Muslim activism. 08:19  |  Jean Van Daem 03/04/08
      13.   old dead palestinian teacher 08:32  |  anit-bandit 03/04/08
      14.   From the horse`s mouth comes the truth 08:41  |  Hastaroth 03/04/08
      15.   Ignore this guy 08:56  |  Natallie Durson 03/04/08
      16.   strike 08:59  |  Shmuelshachor 03/04/08
      17.   Maybe We Should be Arming Ourselves 09:01  |  Dave Levy 03/04/08
      18.   Maybe he thinks we`ll kill ourselves laughing...? 09:48  |  Nechama 03/04/08
      19.   murederous psychopaths 09:50  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 03/04/08
      20.   "We haven`t killed the innocent......" 10:11  |  Swiss (Dino) 03/04/08
      21.   He`s Desperate. Killing innocent Jews will make him popular 10:17  |  Laila 03/04/08
      22.   Come on mealy-mouthed Swiss: denounce him 10:37  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 03/04/08
      23.   Medusas Hair - Terrorist Religion 10:39  |  lily 03/04/08
      24.   #10, Durson, it is not this "guy:" it`s the ideology 10:46  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 03/04/08
      25.   ONE THING THAT HE FORGOT 11:07  |  indrajaya 03/04/08
      26.   #20, Margie in TA 11:07  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 03/04/08
      27.   HE LOVES MCCAIN 11:26  |  indrajaya 03/04/08
      28.   indrajaya 11:43  |  Marco 03/04/08
      29.   #26 Cipora, Re: Ms. Durson 11:53  |  Gideon 03/04/08
      30.   Sure General Durson, you are so right! 15:33  |  Mark Anthony 03/04/08
      31.   Natalie #15 15:37  |  Elihu 03/04/08
      32.   All talk and no action 15:38  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/04/08
      33.   (#4) Free Palestine from who? 15:41  |  N/A 03/04/08
      34.   Al-Qaida Supporting Durson 15:52  |  Yosemite 03/04/08
      35.   Mohammed 16:02  |  Purple Canary 03/04/08
      36.   He is a Mossad agent - everything he says is good for Jews... 16:04  |  17 03/04/08
      37.   Chris Linthwaite 16:07  |  Purple Canary 03/04/08
      38.   FOR CASTRATED AL LAUDA`S EVERYTHING - THE ENEMY OF ISLAM & UMAH 16:21  |  YITZAK BEN SHLOMO 03/04/08
      39.   A Price on His Head 16:21  |  Ron 03/04/08
      40.   Don`t be silly Gideon 16:23  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 03/04/08
      41.   #37 Purple canary 16:25  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/04/08
      42.   #1 MOE dream on!! 16:35  |  * BEN JABO 03/04/08
      43.   has the 21sat century arrived or are we lodged in the muslim dark 16:36  |  v hardman 03/04/08
      44.   Moe#1 - why do you oppose WB given to Jordan?? 16:38  |  William 03/04/08
      45.   Ignore Islamists - blame Israel 16:40  |  jeroen de Jager 03/04/08
      46.   Quite simple. These terrorist are "thugs." 16:41  |  common sense 03/04/08
      47.   Why does this looney get media attention 16:41  |  An Arab American 03/04/08
      48.   To those who complain of the movie FITNA 16:42  |  William 03/04/08
      49.   When the US leaves Iraq 16:45  |  Tosefta 03/04/08
      50.   Al-Qaida # 2. 17:07  |  David Nigel Braham 03/04/08
      51.   47 Arab American. Numbers on Moslem radicals- 17:10  |  statisticsstatistics 03/04/08
      52.   Stupid talk 17:26  |  Mike 03/04/08
      53.   # 22 Margie and # 24 Cipora 17:27  |  Swiss (Dino) 03/04/08
      54.   Al-Hole Flapper 17:35  |  Mark Lincoln 03/04/08
      55.   To # 51statistics 17:39  |  American pie 03/04/08
      56.   # 37 Chris Linthwaite 17:49  |  17 03/04/08
      57.   #52 Mike 17:51  |  Gideon 03/04/08
      58.   Chris Linthwaite 17:52  |  Purple Canary 03/04/08
      59.   # 50 Purple Canary - I like it - 4000 jews "got mail" 18:01  |  17 03/04/08
      60.   #56 17 18:05  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/04/08
      61.   from today`s NYT: it`s endemic and Al-Zawahri no maverick.. 18:08  |  Jeroen de Jager 03/04/08
      62.   Chris #58 18:09  |  Daniel Green 03/04/08
      63.   #51 18:10  |  An Arab American 03/04/08
      64.   #58 Purple canary 18:11  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/04/08
      65.   moe in ramallah # 1 number 4 in your post is and should be 18:17  |  terrornator 03/04/08
      66.   Jean Van Daem 18:23  |  alan 03/04/08
      67.   Chris arrested but not charged and not convicted 18:32  |  x-ray 03/04/08
      68.   Big Talk And Little Do 18:36  |  Jeff Northridge 03/04/08
      69.   # 11 Dish It Out..Isn`t Al-Zawahri Looking Worn Out? Hiding in 18:37  |  KATHY 03/04/08
      70.   # 60 - " Just what I read..." Try read Shakespear" 18:40  |  17 03/04/08