|
Somalia: Al-Qaeda wants Jihad
05/01/2007 11:10 - (SA)
Dubai - Al-Qaeda No 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for Somali Islamists to use guerrilla tactics being used in Iraq and Afghanistan against government forces and their Ethiopian allies, in a video message released on a website on Friday.
"I call on all Muslims to respond to the appeal for Jihad (holy struggle) in Somalia," Osama bin Laden's deputy said in the message posted on a site usually used by Al-Qaeda. "The real war will start with attacks against the Ethiopian forces of aggression."
Ethiopia helped Somalia's transitional government rout Islamist forces from Mogadishu and other strongholds late last month. Islamist leaders are now on the run.
Zawahiri called on Islamist forces to use suicide attacks, mines and ambushes against the government and also implicated the United States, which has backed Ethiopia's right to intervene in Somalia. The US navy is now patrolling off the Somali coast.
"Don't be impressed by the force of America: you have defeated it in the past," he said. "The mujahedeen have broken its backbone in Afghanistan and Iraq."
The message was released as an international contact group on Somalia started talks in Nairobi on ways of stabilising the conflict stricken nation. The transitional government and Ethiopian forces are also hunting Islamist forces.
|
News
