Tape urges attacks on US and British interests

AN audio tape purportedly released by Osama bin Laden’s deputy calls for attacks on US and British interests everywhere, according to comments aired by Al-Jazeera TV yeterday.

The Gulf satellite station said the speaker on the tape was Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born surgeon and the closest aide to al-Qaida terrorist group leader bin Laden.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the recording.

The speaker on the tape calls on Muslims “not to wait any longer, otherwise we will be devoured, one country after the other”.

“The youth must not wait for anyone and must begin resisting from now and learn a lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan and Chechnya.”

In addition to the US and Britain, al-Zawahri singled out Australia, France, Poland, Norway, South Korea and Japan, saying they had all participated in occupying Afghanistan or Iraq or Chechnya and gave Israel “means of survival”.

An Al-Jazeera producer said the tape was “supposedly received today,” by usual means, which he refused to discuss. The station aired almost four minutes in two clips of a longer recording, and, as usual, was not planning to air the full tape.

The audiotape was the second to surface in less than a month on the Qatar-based al-Jazeera station. On September 9 al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of al-Zawahri proclaiming that the United States will ultimately be defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US Central Intelligence Agency determined with a high degree of confidence that the previous message was al-Zawahri.