TERRORISM - ZAWAHIRI: "MAKE IRAQ AN ISLAMIC FORTRESS"

From: AGI News

(AGI) - Washington, 18th April - In a fresh appearance on the web, 'al-Qaeda's second in command, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called on Moslems to "make Iraq a fortress of Islam". The exhortation came in an audio recording lasting almost sixteen minutes, appearing on several blogs used by Islamic extremists.
"It is the greatest duty" of the faithful, stressed the ideologist of the terrorist organisation founded by Osama bin Laden, in a message bearing the title "Five years after the invasion of Iraq, and decades of injustice on the part of the tyrants'. "We shall have our rights once more", Zawahiri averred, "only by our own hand, and not by begging or through fraudulent elections". The appeal made by bin Laden's deputy was intercepted by 'Site', a Washington-based institute specialised in monitoring terrorist activities on line, according to whom the text contains references both to the hearing before the US Senate of David Petraeus, Chief in Command of US troops in Iraq, and to the textile workers' strike held a few days previously in Egypt. Both of these elements are evidence of the recent nature of the recording.
This is the second appearance of a recording attributable to Zawahiri this month: the previous on, on 2 April, consisted of a violent attack on the United Nations, stamped as "enemies of Islam and of Moslems" for its responsibility in "codifying and legitimising the state of Israel and its occupation of Moslem lands". (AGI)