Al-Zawahri calls for attacks on oil facilities

AL-QAIDA'S deputy leader called for attacks against Gulf oil facilities and urged insurgent groups in Iraq to unite to drive out American forces, according to a videotape posted on the Internet Wednesday.

The posting was a full version of a video by al-Qaida No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri that was issued on September 19, excerpts of which were broadcast by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera at the time. The network aired more excerpts yesterday, originally presenting all of the footage as new. A newscaster later told viewers some of the excerpts had previously been broadcast.

Al-Zawahri, the Egyptian deputy of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, said in a portion of the tape not previously broadcast: "I call on the holy warriors to concentrate their campaigns on the stolen oil of the Muslims, most of the revenues of which go to the enemies of Islam."

Al-Zawahri also said that Osama bin Laden was alive and well and leading the holy war against the West.

Al-Zawahri said "the enemies of Islam" were exploiting oil with "incomparable greed, and we have to stop that theft with all we can save this fortune for the nation of Islam."

Al-Zawahri called on Iraqi insurgent groups to unite. Iraqi Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, "whose hands were not tainted by Americans", should come together to fill "the gap that will be left by the Americans departure" from Iraq, he said.

The full video includes quotes on September elections in Afghanistan and on the July 7 London bombings that appeared in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera on Sept 19.