A rchive Date
[ 01-09-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Britain ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/08/04/1159181-ap.html
Al-Qaida admits London bombings
By SALLY BUZBEE
September 1, 2005
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, claimed responsibility for the July 7 London bombings in a video aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera that included a farewell statement by a man identified as one of the four suicide attackers. It was the first explicit claim of responsibility for the blasts by the terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden.
Al-Zawahri, who is thought to be hiding along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border, threatened the West with "more catastrophes" in retaliation for the policies of U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The Al-Jazeera newscaster who presented the al-Zawahri tape said it contained a "testament" by one of the four suicide bombers who attacked the London transport system July 7, killing 56 people including the bombers.
Speaking with a heavy Yorkshire accent, the bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, said he was inspired by bin Laden, al-Zawahri and the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.
"Until you will stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight," said Khan, wearing a red-white checked keffiyeh and a dark jacket. "We are at war, and I am a soldier and now you too will taste the reality of this situation."
In his tape, Al-Zawahri said the bombings were a direct response to Britain's foreign policies and its rejection of a truce that al-Qaida offered Europe in April 2004.
After the March 2004 train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid, Spain, bin Laden was reported to have offered European countries a three-month cease-fire to consider his demands to withdraw their troops from Muslim countries. Effectively it meant that European forces should leave Afghanistan and Iraq.
"I talk to you today about the blessed London battle which came as a slap to the face of the tyrannical, crusader British arrogance," al-Zawahri said. "It's a sip from the glass that the Muslims have been drinking from."
"This blessed battle has transferred - like its glorious predecessors in New York, Washington, and Madrid - the battle to the enemies' land, after many centuries of the battle being on our (Muslim) land and after (western) troops have occupied our land in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine."
In a clear bid to turn Britons against the government, al-Zawahri said: "Blair not only disregards the millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he does not care about you as he sends you to the inferno in Iraq and exposes you to death in your land because of his crusader war against Islam." Al-Zawahri appeared in black turban and white robes with an automatic weapon leaning against the wall beside him
.
In his part of the tape, Khan said he had forsaken "everything for what we believe" and went on to accuse western civilians of being directly responsible for the terror attacks that befall them. "Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate injustice against my people all over the world, and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters," Khan said.
The image of Khan, a 30-year-old Leeds resident who died in the bombing of the London Underground train near Edgware Road, resembled photos of him published after the deadly attacks. Khan was shown in the video with a trimmed beard and appeared to be sitting against a wall lined with an ornate carpet.
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the message's sensitive nature, said any claim of responsibility does not necessarily indicate that al-Qaida planned or directed the attack. The officials said al-Qaida would regard the London bombings as a victory whether they were directly involved in them or not.
It was not the first time al-Zawahri has addressed the London bombings on videotape.
In a tape aired Aug. 4 by Al-Jazeera, al-Zawahri did not directly claim that al-Qaida carried out the July 7 bombings or the failed July 21 attacks, but he brought the July 7 attacks under al-Qaida's wing and depicted the network as still capable of delivering strikes around the world despite arrests in Europe and blows against its leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He presented the attacks as a result of Blair's decision to deploy troops in Iraq.
Nor was it the first time that a group has claimed responsibility for the July 7 attacks. On the day of the blasts a group calling itself the Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe posted a claim of responsibility on a website popular with Islamic militants. The group purportedly said the London bombs were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another al-Qaida-linked group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility in a statement posted on an Islamic website shortly after the attacks.
Copyright © 2005, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|