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Al-Qaeda deputy releases video in English

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has released his first English-language video call for jihad in Pakistan, the US-based IntelCenter said on Sunday.

The message was aired on Pakistan’s ARY television network, IntelCenter said in a statement, adding that it marked “the first official message ever ... in which he speaks English.”

Zawahiri “calls for the people to support jihad in Pakistan and lists a litany of grievances against the Pakistani government and US involvement there,” said IntelCenter, which monitors extremist Web sites and communications.

In particular, Zawahiri accuses Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf of being “thirsty for money and a bribeseeker,” arguing that he is working to support US and Western interests and that he has committed crimes against Muslims all over the world.

Zawahiri also calls Abdul Qadeer Khan — the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb under house arrest for transferring nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea — a “scapegoat to appease the Americans.”

“Let there be no doubt in your minds that the dominant political forces at work in Pakistan today are competing to appease and please the modern day crusaders in the White House, and are working to destabilize this nuclear capable nation under the aegis of America,” Zawahiri was quoted as saying by IntelCenter.

In related news, Pakistan’s intelligence agency is helping the Taliban pursue an insurgency in Afghanistan that has seen a 50 percent hike in attacks in some areas this year, a NATO commander said.

The number of foreign fighters, including Europeans, is also increasing while NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) still lacks the soldiers it needs, US General David McKiernan said in a weekend interview.

“There certainly is a level of ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] complicity in the militant areas in Pakistan and organizations such as the Taliban,” the four-star general said, echoing allegations by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and others. “I can’t say to what level of leadership that goes to but there are indications of complicity on the part of ISI ... to the extent that they are facilitating these militant groups that come out of the tribal areas in Pakistan.”

Karzai has directly accused the ISI of fueling the unrest in Afghanistan, which sees near daily militant attacks, but Pakistan has rejected the claim.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants attacked two Pakistani security posts in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan on yesterday, sparking fierce clashes in which 20 rebels were killed, officials said.

Fighters attacked a paramilitary fortress and stormed a checkpost in the semi-autonomous Bajaur tribal zone, a known haunt of al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels, they said.

“The Taliban launched a big attack on Tor Ghundi fort and Iskandro post. Security forces responded and 20 militants were killed,” a paramilitary official told reporters.
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