Al-Qaida urges Islamic state in Libya

AL-QAIDA’S new leader called on Libyan fighters who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi to set up an Islamic state and urged Algerians to revolt against their longtime president in an internet video posted yesterday.

Ayman al-Zawahri warned Libyan revolutionaries to protect their gains against “Western plots”, claiming NATO will demand they give up their Islamic faith as the country bids to set up a new government.

“The first thing NATO will ask you to do is to give up your Islam and not to implement Islamic Sharia law,” al-Zawahri said.

“They want the non-religious and the atheists who don’t accept Sharia to rule the Islamic world.”

The 13-minute video was entitled And the defeats of Americans continue.

Al-Zawahri also urged Algerians to revolt against president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and follow the examples of the Arab uprisings.

“Why don’t you revolt against your tyranny, Algerian lions,” al-Zawahri asked.

Al-Qaida has long opposed the regimes of autocratic Arab leaders, calling them godless, corrupt and too closely allied with the US, and has called for the establishment of Islamic rule to replace their regimes.

Al-Zawahri was Osama bin Laden’s deputy and became head of al-Qaida in June after his death.

In yesterday’s video, al-Zawahri also praised a militant attack in southern Israel in August, when gunmen crossed from Egypt and killed eight Israelis near a Red Sea resort.