Al-Jazeera airs al-Qaida tape urging war on Western world

QATAR’S al-Jazeera television network yesterday aired an audio tape purportedly from Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant in which he urged Muslims to wage holy war against Americans, Jews and Western interests.

The broadcast followed US warnings of imminent al-Qaida attacks in the Unites States, the Middle East and Africa.

The tape by Ayman al-Zawahri appeared to have been made in the early days of the US-led war on Iraq and made no mention of the recent wave of suicide bombings which killed at least 75 people in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's birthplace.