Al-Qaida blasts Iran for working with US

In new tape, Zawahri also ridicules Hizbullah for describing Second Lebanon War as a victory.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Ayman al Zawahri 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
Ayman al Zawahri 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
Al-Qaida marked the anniversary of the September 11 attacks Monday with an hour-and-a-half video message summarizing the state of jihad, or holy war, around the world and slamming Iran for collaborating with the United States. In the short excerpts aired on the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, al-Qaida Number 2 Ayman al-Zawahri accused Iran working with US forces. "The guardian of Muslims in Teheran is cooperating with the Americans in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and recognizes the two hireling governments there," he said. Zawahri also criticized the Shi'ites for not "issuing any fatwa (edict) inside or outside Iraq calling for jihad and carrying arms against the Crusader occupier in Iraq." In militant postings, "crusaders" is shorthand for US troops in Iraq. Zawahri has been increasingly singling out Iran and Shi'ites in his messages, most recently in April, describing the "Persians" as the enemy of Arabs and complicit in the occupation of Iraq. The latest video featured clips of al-Qaida operations in the various fronts around the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, with prominent figures from the movement discoursing on their accomplishments over the year, Al-Jazeera said. The pan-Arab network did not disclose how it obtained the recording. By late Monday, the video had not surfaced on militant Web sites commonly used as clearing houses for the terror networks' messages. In contrast to reports that al-Qaida has been weakened in Iraq, the new September 11 message claimed that jihad was alive and well and, according to Al-Jazeera's Web site, showed an Iraqi scholar decrying the US-allied awakening councils that have turned against al-Qaida as "treacherous" and "doomed." The tape also celebrated former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf's resignation, saying he had "swallowed the fruit of his betrayal," according to Al-Jazeera. The US-allied government in Kabul was also described as weaker. Zawahri also ridiculed Hizbullah for describing their 2006 summer war with Israel as a victory. "What victory?" he said, according to Al-Jazeera. "Retreating 30 miles backwards?" Al-Qaida leader, Abu Yahia al-Libi, the movement's commander in Afghanistan, also appeared praising the exploits of Islamist insurgents in Somalia, saying their numbers were growing.