Al-Qaida warns 'new events' on the way in 9/11 message: CNN

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 Kyodo

A video statement from Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued on the eve of the fifth anniversary of al-Qaida's attacks on the United States, calls on Muslims to step up their resistance to the United States and warns that ''new events'' are on the way, CNN reported Monday.

''Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster,'' the deputy to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was quoted as saying in the video, which appeared on Islamist websites late Sunday.

''And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with Allah's permission and guidance,'' according to the report.

It appeared just hours before Monday's anniversary of the al-Qaida 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

It appears to have been recorded recently, with references to Israel's bombardment of Lebanon and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by Palestinian militants in Gaza and by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, the CNN report said.

It criticizes the West for arming Israel and calls on the Muslim nation ''to rush with everything at its disposal to the aid of its Muslim brothers in Lebanon and Gaza,'' the report said.

Al-Zawahiri says any attack on Westerners and Jews anywhere can be considered fair, because ''the reality of international politics is the humiliation and repression of the Muslim at the hands of the idol-kings who dominate this world,'' the report said.

The video is more technically sophisticated than previous ones released by al-Qaida's fugitive leadership. It is an hour and 16 minutes long and is subtitled in English, with a short section of highlights at the outset, the report said.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri escaped the U.S. onslaught that followed the 2001 suicide hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. They are believed to be hiding somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO troops are now battling a resurgence of al Qaeda's Taliban allies.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning