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A new message from Osama
30/11/2007 11:53 - (SA)
Cairo, Egypt - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden called on Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.
Bin Laden said it was unjust for the United States to have invaded Afghanistan for sheltering him after the Sept 11 terror attacks, saying he was the "only one responsible" for the deadly assaults on New York and Washington in 2001.
The message, broadcast on Thursday, appeared to be another attempt by bin Laden to influence public opinion in the West. In 2004, he offered Europeans a truce if they stopped attacking Muslims, then later spoke of a truce with the US. In both cases, al-Qaeda then denounced those areas for not accepting its offer.
The terror leader said Afghans have been caught up in decades of struggle, first "at the hands of the Russians ... and before their wounds had healed and their grief had ended, they were invaded without right by your unjust governments".
He said that two separate injustices were visited upon Afghanistan as the Taliban was toppled in 2001: First, the war was "waged against the Afghans without right", and second, coalition troops have not followed the "protocol of warfare", with the result that most bomb victims have been women and children.
"I have personally witnessed incidents like these, and the matter continues on an almost daily basis," he said.
US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack dismissed the new tape as typical of bin Laden's tactics and expressed faith in the European allies.
"I think our Nato allies understand quite clearly what is at stake in Afghanistan as well as elsewhere around the world in fighting the war on terror," he told reporters. "It's going to require a sustained commitment over a period of time and we have seen that kind of commitment from our European allies."
FBI analysts were reviewing the tape but were not immediately able to say how long it was or when it might have been recorded nor could they provide other details. Spokesperson Richard Kolko said it was being examined "to determine if it is authentic and for any intelligence value".
This has been the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in late 2001, with more than 6 100 people killed - including more than 800 civilians - in militant attacks and military operations, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.
In the new tape, bin Laden said European nations joined the US invasion of Afghanistan "because they had no other alternative, only to be a follower".
Al-Jazeera aired two brief excerpts of the audiotape, titled "Message to the European Peoples".
- AP
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