Al-Qaida warns US of more attacks

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S right-hand man has warned the US to prepare for more al-Qaida attacks.

Audio tapes purported to be from bin Laden's top lieutenant aired on Arabic TV stations yesterday, one taunting President George W Bush and threatening more attacks on the United States, the second criticising France's decision to ban Islamic headscarves in schools.

Portions of separate audiotapes attributed to Ayman al-Zawahri were broadcast a few hours apart on Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera, competing pan-Arab satellite channels based in the Persian Gulf. Officials at both stations said they had aired only excerpts judged newsworthy. The two stations said they had received different tapes.

In Al-Jazeera's tape, the voice believed to be that of al-Zawahri challenged Mr Bush's claim to have liberated Iraq and indicated al-Qaida is still running operations from Afghanistan.

"We remind Bush that situation is not stable in Afghanistan, or else how do we wage, with God's support and might, our attacks on your troops and agents.

"We remind Bush that he didn't destroy two-thirds of Al-Qaida. On the contrary, thanks be to God, al-Qaida is still in the holy war battleground raising the banner of Islam in the face of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against the Islamic community," it added. In his State of the Union address in January, Mr Bush said "nearly two-thirds" of al-Qaida's known leaders had been captured or killed.

"Bush, fortify your targets, tighten your defence, intensify your security measures," the voice warned, "because the fighting Islamic community which sent you New York and Washington battalions has decided to send you one battalion after the other, carrying death and seeking heaven."

The audiotape aired by Dubai-based al-Arabiya also criticised France's decision to ban religious symbols in public buildings, including headscarves worn by Muslim women. The law is expected to go before the French Senate early next month, where little opposition exists.

"The decision of the French president to issue a law to prevent Muslim girls from covering their heads in schools is another example of the Crusader's envy, which Westerners have against Muslims," the voice said in Al-Arabiya's tape.

Both stations identified the voice on their tapes as that of al-Zawahri, and both said they had received the material yesterday. Officials at both stations spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Al-Arabiya official said his station's analysts believed the voice to be al-Zawahri's and that the station believed it was authentic.