Bin Laden's Deputy Issues A Holy War Against Israel And Her Allies

Osama bin Laden's deputy issued a worldwide call today for Muslims to rise up in holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza, until Islam reigns from ‘Spain to Iraq’. Ayman al-Zawahiri warned that al-Qaida would not stand ‘idly by, humiliated’, as Israeli ‘shells burn our brothers’. In a video tape broadcast by al-Jazeera, the Egyptian terror leader said: ‘How can we remain silent while watching bombs raining on our people? Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the Crusaders. ‘ He said that the weapons being used by the Israelis were from the ‘crusader coalition’ and added that ‘every participant will pay the price’. Zawahiri, wearing a grey robe and white turban, and speaking in front of a picture of the World Trade Centre on fire, said al-Qaida now saw ‘all the world as a battlefield open in front of us’. He said: ‘The war with Israel does not depend on ceasefires ... . It is a jihad for God's sake and will last until [our] religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq ... We will attack everywhere.’ In another section of the tape, he said: ‘The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli [weapons], but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price.’