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Al-Qaeda says US lying about successes

The US is lying when it claims to have smashed the al-Qaeda terror network and defeated the ruling Taliban forces in Afghanistan, the group's deputy leader said Friday.

"[U.S. President George W.] Bush lies to his people when he claims to have destroyed the al-Qaeda group and broken the ranks of the Taliban. The whole world laughs at his lies," said Ayman al-Zawahri.

Speaking on a videotape that was broadcast by the Qatari satellite channel Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahri said that in a month of airstrikes on Afghanistan, the US had killed 1,600 civilians, "elderly people, women and innocent children," and had displaced millions of others.

"Let America describe us as [terrorists] as it wants, the truth remains ... its campaign will be a failure, God willing," he said.

"Let America mobilize as much as it can, and let it lie as much as it wants, the whole world will know after the upcoming strikes, God willing, who is the liar and who is telling the truth," he said.

It was not clear if by "upcoming strikes" he meant the next attacks by the US or by al-Qaeda.

TheUS has accused al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden of instigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

"We assure [America] that we are continuing in our holy struggle, God willing, until we liberate our sanctuaries from the American-Jewish aggression and until the last American-Jewish soldiers leave Palestine and the Arabian peninsula and the lands of Islam," he said.

Friday's videotape was the fifth from al-Qaeda that al-Jazeera has broadcast since the US-British air and ground attacks on Afghanistan began on Oct. 7.
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