THE GUARDIAN: A message claiming to be from al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called on Muslims to turn Iraq into the "fortress of Islam".
In the second such audio message in a month, the speaker said the battle for the establishment of a greater Islamic state was the "most important duty" of every Muslim. The call to arms came in a 16-minute long audio file posted on the internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified but the voice was said by experts to sound like Zawahiri.
In the speech entitled, Five years after the Invasion of Iraq and Decades of Injustice by the Tyrants, the speaker refers to US Iraqi commander General David Petraeus's recent testimony to the US Congress, and to a textile worker strike in Egypt on April 6.
The tape reportedly said: "We will only get our rights back with our own hands and not through beggary or fraudulent elections."
It called on Muslims to make Iraq a "fortress of Islam" and railed against Shia Iran for siding with the US against Iraq – a plot which he said would lead to an explosion of violence in the Middle East.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born surgeon thought to be in hiding in Pakistan or Afghanistan, regularly appears in video or audio clips. Earlier this month, he pulled off a propaganda coup for al-Qaida by answering questions from hundreds of people invited to take part in an online "open meeting".
In the internet Q&A he justified attacks against "crusaders", Jews, and their agents, predicted that "jihadi influence" will spread to Jerusalem after the US leaves Iraq and attacked the UN as "the enemy of Islam".
He also claimed that Bin Laden was "healthy and well". [Source: 'Zawahiri Tape' Calls for Fortress Islam in Iraq] By Anil Dawar and agencies | April 18, 2008
Al-Zawahiri Audio Tape HERE
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