Al-Qaida's military commander rejects US claims

The US is lying when it claims to have smashed the al-Qaida terrorist network and to have broken the back of Taliban forces in Afghanistan, the group’s military commander said Friday.

‘‘Bush lies to his people when he claims to have destroyed the al-Qaida group and broken the ranks of the Taliban. The whole world laughs at his lies,’’ said Ayman el-Zawahri in a television broadcast.

Speaking on a videotape that was broadcast by the Qatari satellite channel Al-Jazeera, el-Zawahri said that in a month of air strikes on Afghanistan, the US had killed 1,600 civilians, ‘‘elderly people, women and innocent children’’, and had displaced millions of others.

‘‘Let America describe us as (terrorists) as it wants, the truth remains ... its campaign will be a failure, God willing,’’ he said.