Osama bin Laden issued ominous new threats in an audiotape broadcast Sunday, purportedly saying the West was at war with Islam and calling on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed UN force.
Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden (right).
Photo: AP [file] , AP
In his first new message in three months, bin Laden said the West's decision to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority because its Hamas leaders refuse to recognize Israel proved that the US and Europe were conducting "a Zionist crusader war on Islam."
"The blockade which the West is imposing on the government of Hamas proves that there is a Zionist crusader war on Islam," said the speaker on the tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera. "I say that this war is the joint responsibility of the people and the governments. While the war continues, the people renew their allegiance to their rulers and politicians and continue to send their sons to our countries to fight us."
The voice on the tape sounded strong and resembled that on previous recordings attributed to bin Laden. There was no way to independently verify its authenticity.
"We are aware of the tape and a technical analysis of the recording is being conducted," a US intelligence official said.
Israeli government spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said bin Laden had decided to attack Israel to deflect growing Arab animosity toward al-Qaida.
"When he attacks Israel, this is something the Arab world can agree upon," Gissin said. "He has been criticized for the destruction and carnage he's causing the Muslim nation. He's looking for another justification... Criticizing Israel sounds more politically correct."
Recent media reports in the Middle East have said al-Qaida is building cells in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Sudan.
A Hamas spokesman said the group's ideology is vastly different from al-Qaida's but noted that international sanctions on the PA government would naturally cause anger among some Muslims.
"It's natural that this tension is going to create an impression that there is a Western-Israeli alliance working against the Palestinians," Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Bin Laden also addressed the conflict in Sudan, where he was based before being expelled under threats from the US. He then moved to Afghanistan and is believed to be hiding out in the rugged mountains on the Pakistani side of their common border.
In Washington, US intelligence officials said bin Laden is separated from his top deputy and, in a sign he has to be careful about whom he trusts, surrounded by fellow Arabs.
His No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is hiding in a more settled area along the border, also surrounded by al-Qaida operatives from Egypt, the officials said.
A three-year conflict between Darfur's rebels and the Arab-dominated central government has caused about 180,000 deaths - most from disease and hunger - and displaced 2 million people.
The UN has described the conflict as the world's gravest humanitarian crisis. The US has described it as genocide.
Negotiators are trying to broker a peace deal between warring factions by an April 30 deadline. Members of the African Union have agreed in principle to hand over peacekeeping duties to the UN beginning September 30.
"I call on mujahedeen and their supporters, especially in Sudan and the Arab peninsula, to prepare for long war again the crusader plunderers in Western Sudan. Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people," bin Laden purportedly said. "I urge holy warriors to be acquainted with the land and the tribes in Darfur."
Al-Qaida has targeted Western forces in Africa before - including its attacks against US troops trying to bring peace to Somalia in 1993.
Al-Jazeera apparently had the tape long enough to make significant edits, with its news reader providing substantial transition and background comments between excerpts from bin Laden.
It was the first purported new message from bin Laden since January 19. In that audiotape, he warned that his fighters were preparing new attacks in the US but offered the American people a "long-term truce" without specifying the conditions.
That tape was posted in full on a Web site a month later and included a vow by the terrorist chieftain never to be captured alive.
"I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," bin Laden said in that previous 11-minute, 26-second tape.
In the message broadcast Sunday, bin Laden also called for a global Muslim boycott of American goods similar to the recent boycott of Danish products after the publication there of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
He also said the artists who drew those offending cartoons should be handed over to him for trial and punishment.
