Bin Laden calls for holy war 'to free Palestine'

Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden slammed Palestinian negotiations with Israel and urged holy war for the liberation of Palestine in a new audio tape broadcast today.

The audio – the second by bin Laden in as many days – was the first time bin Laden spoke of the Palestinian question at length since the deteriorating situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip where Israel imposed a siege in response to heavy rocket fire by Gaza militants.

In the broadcast by the Qatar-based television network Al Jazeera, bin Laden said: “Palestine cannot be retaken by negotiations and dialogue, but with fire and iron.”

Bin Laden also called on Palestinians who are unable to fight in the “land of Al-Quds” – a Muslim reference to Jerusalem – to join the al Qaida fight and the holy war, or jihad, in Iraq.

“The nearest field of jihad today to support our people in Palestine is the Iraqi field,” said the voice reported to be bin Laden’s.

“We tell our brothers in Palestine who could not join the jihad in the land of Al-Quds, to get rid of illusions of political parties and groups which are mired in trickery of the blasphemous democracy and to take their positions among the ranks of the mujahideen in Iraq.”

Such a Palestinian fight in Iraq should be “supported by all Muslims, especially from neighbouring countries,” bin Laden added.

Al Jazeera TV did not say how it obtained the recording, which was broadcast with an old photograph showing bin Laden in a white headscarf and traditional Arab dress.

As with bin Laden’s earlier audiotape, posted yesterday on a militant website that has carried al Qaida statements in the past, there was no indication when exactly it was made. The two messages were bin Laden’s first this year.

In today’s tape on Al Jazeera, bin Laden said the sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza began when treacherous Arab leaders began supporting the US-hosted Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last November, and the “Zionist entity.”

“By their support, they are considered partners to this horrible crime,” bin Laden said of Arab leaders who have backed the Mideast peace talks.

Israel has been battling Hamas in Gaza since the Islamic militant group took control of the strip in June from followers of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli air raids are common in Gaza and militants fire rockets into Israeli towns near the strip.

“Palestine will not return to us with the negotiations by the submissive rulers, their conferences nor by demonstrations and elections,” bin Laden said. “Palestine will come back to us if we awaken from our ignorance and adhere to our religion and sacrifice our lives and means to it.”

Ben Venzke, the head of IntelCenter, a US group that monitors militant messages, said it wasn’t easy to draw significance from bin Laden’s audio on Al Jazeera since only excerpts were broadcast and the TV did not say how long the full recording was.

Although al Qaida has previously released two messages in as many days – most recently by bin Laden’s top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri in December – these latest audiotapes appeared to be the closest by bin Laden, Mr Venzke said.

“Al Qaida has been making a concerted effort to be responsive to developments in news cycle and to respond to current events with their perspective on it,” Mr Venzke said. “The situation in Gaza and the reprinting of cartoons was something bin Laden felt was important to address.”

Mr Venzke expected a broader release of the statement on Al Jazeera to surface within 72 hours.

In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said that Israel does not comment on bin Laden’s statements.

In yesterday’s five-minute recording, bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a “new Crusade” against Islam and warned of a “severe” reaction for Europeans’ publication of cartoons seen by Muslims as insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

That message raised concerns al Qaida was plotting new attacks in Europe. Some experts said bin Laden, believed to be in hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, may be unable to organise such an attack himself and instead was trying to fan anger over the cartoons to inspire violence by supporters.

A US counterterrorism official said today that “CIA analysis assesses with a high degree of confidence it is Osama bin Laden’s voice on the tape” and that there was “no reason to doubt bin Laden is alive.”

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that although the whole of yesterday’s message had not been received yet, it was clear “the contents… are filled with hate and encouraging people to murder innocents in the name of a perverted and depraved cause.”

On February 13, Danish newspapers republished one of the cartoons, which shows Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban, to illustrate their commitment to freedom of speech after police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist.

Vatican spokesman, Reverend Federico Lombardi, said today that bin Laden’s accusation the Pope had played a role in a worldwide campaign against Islam was “baseless.”

Rev Lombardi said the Pope has repeatedly criticised the cartoons, first published in some European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.