Bin Laden issues warnings on Iraq, Israel in new tape
CAIRO, Egypt – Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and vowed to expand the terror group’s holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.”
Most of the 56-minute tape dealt with Iraq, apparently al-Qaida’s latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military claims to have al-Qaida’s Iraq branch on the run.
The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, though Pakistan’s government has blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for her death on Thursday. That suggested the tape was made before the assassination.
Bin Laden’s comments offered an unusually direct attack on Israel, stepping up al-Qaida’s attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters. Israel has warned of growing al-Qaida activity in Palestinian territory, though the terror network is not believed to have taken a strong role there so far.
“We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea,” he said, threatening “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.”
“We will not recognize even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have,” bin Laden said.
In Iraq, a number of Sunni Arab tribes in western Anbar province have formed a coalition fighting al-Qaida-linked insurgents that U.S. officials credit for deeply reducing violence in the province. The U.S. military has been working to form similar “Awakening” councils in other areas of Iraq.
Bin Laden said Sunni Arabs who have joined the Awakening councils “have betrayed the nation and brought disgrace and shame to their people. They will suffer in life and in the afterlife.”
In the audiotape, bin Laden denounced Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the former leader of the Anbar Awakening council, who was killed in a September bombing claimed by al-Qaida.
“The most evil of the traitors are those who trade away their religion for the sake of their mortal life,” bin Laden said.
Bin Laden said U.S. and Iraqi officials are seeking to set up a “national unity government” joining the country’s Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
“Our duty is to foil these dangerous schemes, which try to prevent the establishment of an Islamic state in Iraq, which would be a wall of resistance against American schemes to divide Iraq,” he said.
He called on Iraq’s Sunni Arabs to rally behind the Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group led by al-Qaida.
Bin Laden said Sunnis should pledge their allegiance to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the little-known “emir” or leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. U.S. officials have claimed that al-Baghdadi does not exist, saying al-Qaida created the name to give its coalition the illusion of an Iraqi leadership.