Al-Qaeda threatens France
14/09/2006 11:36  - (SA)  

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Paris - Al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has threatened France with attacks by an Algerian terrorist group, French media reported on Thursday.

According to a transcription of a video released earlier this week, al-Zawahiri announced the official alliance between al-Qaeda and the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), and threatened that it would be a "thorn" in the throat of the French.

"Our soldier sheikh..., Osama bin Laden, has charged me to announce that the GSPC has joined al-Qaeda. We pray to God that they become a thorn in the throats of the American and French crusaders and their allies," al-Zawihiri said in the video, which was primarily concerned with the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The substance of the video statement was made public on Monday.

Al-Qaeda messages directly targeting France are rare. The last one dates back to 2004, when bin Laden criticised the French for banning the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in public schools.

The GSPC was created at the end of the 1990s by dissidents of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and in September 2005 declared France to be "public enemy number one, enemy of our religion, enemy of our community".

Sapa-dpa

 

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