'Bin Laden' tape praises Bali, Moscow attacks

A voice purported to be Osama bin Laden praised terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow and threatened Western nations which attack Iraq in an audio tape broadcast today by Qatar-based satellite television station Al-Jazeera.

It could not be immediately determined if the voice was actually that of bin Laden.

If it is, however, it would be the clearest indication yet that the elusive terrorist mastermind survived US airstrikes last year against his hideouts in Afghanistan and that he remains alive.

The speaker on the tape referred to the Bali bombing, the killing last month of a US Marine on Failaka Island in Kuwait, the bombing of a French oil tanker last month off Yemen and the Chechen hostage taking in Moscow, saying all those attacks “are only a reaction undertaken by sons who are zealous in the defence of their religion”.

He said those attacks were in response to “what (US President George W) Bush is doing, killing our sons, our old people and children by American planes in Palestine.”

In Washington, US intelligence officials were evaluating the tape to verify if the voice was really bin Laden’s, said US officials on condition of anonymity.

The last certain evidence bin Laden was alive was a videotape of him having dinner with some of his deputies, which is believed to have been filmed on November 9, 2001.

Another tape of him giving a statement aired in late December, in which he appeared gaunt and possibly wounded.

The references in the tape suggested it was filmed in late November or early December, but officials were not fully certain when it was made.