REUTERS: DUBAI - Al Qaeda has issued a video marking the Sept. 11 attacks, in which deputy group leader Ayman al-Zawahri accuses Iran of taking part in a Western "Crusader" war against Islam, Al Jazeera television said on Monday.
The video also shows apparently recent footage of senior al Qaeda figure Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, casting doubt on a report that he was killed on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan last month.
In a segment on the video aired by al Jazeera, Zawahri attacked Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, questioning the Islamic Republic's anti-Western stand.
"The (leader of Iran) collaborates with the Americans in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and recognises the puppet regimes in both countries, while he warns of death and destruction to anyone who touches an inch of Iranian soil," Zawahri said.
Al Qaeda, a militant Sunni Islamist group, often criticises predominantly Shi'ite Iran, which has good relations with Afghanistan's anti-Taliban leaders and Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.
"Not even one Shi'ite authority -- whether in Iraq or elsewhere -- has issued a fatwa (religious edict) obligating jihad and taking up of arms against the American Crusader invaders in Iraq and Afghanistan," Zawahri said. Al Qaeda Video Slams Iran, “Crusader” War >>> | September 8, 2008
AL JAZEERA:
Al-Qaeda Video Rounds on Iran >>> | September 8, 2008
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