Al-Zawahri urges Iraq's Kurds to rise up

Al Qaida’s No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on Iraq’s Kurds to renounce America and Israel in a video posted on the internet tonight.

The full one hour, 16-minute video was posted on an Islamic website that frequently airs al-Qaida messages. Excerpts of the tape aired earlier on CNN and Al-Jazeera television.

“I appeal to my brothers in Islam, the Kurds, to renounce these calls which support America and Israel, and to write an honourable page in the contemporary history of Islam,” al Zawahri said in footage that appeared to be new.

Osama bin Laden's deputy also called on his followers to attack the US in response to the conviction and jailing of a blind Muslim cleric.

“I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman,” al-Zawahri said.

Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric from Egypt, was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his advisory role in a plot to blow up five New York City landmarks, including the United Nations, in 1995.

The first section of the video contained short clips – highlights of the longer interview that followed. All the footage was stamped with the emblem of As-Sahab, al-Qaida’s media arm.