Al-Qaida's No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri harshly criticized Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy in a new audio tape on Saturday, accusing him of being an enemy of Islam and threatening a wave of attacks against the North African country because it improved relations with the United States.
In the 28-minute audio tape called "Unity of the Ranks," al-Zawahri also announced that a Libyan Islamist group was joining ranks with Al-Qaida.
"The Islamic nation is witnessing a blessed step ... The brothers are escalating the confrontation against the enemies of Islam: Khadafy and his masters, the Washington crusaders," al-Zawahri said in the audio tape. The recording could not be independently verified, but it appeared on a website commonly used by insurgents and carried the logo of Al-Qaida's media production house, as-Sahab.
The recording also carried a message Abu Laith al-Libi, a Libyan Al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan who accused Khadafy of decades of tyranny.
"He is the tyranny of Libya and is dragging the country to the swamp," al-Libi said in the recording that also featured old video footage of him walking with other masked gunmen.
"After long years, he (Khadafy) discovered suddenly that America is not an enemy ... and is turning Libya into another crusader base," said al-Libi, who has appeared in several recent Internet Al-Qaida videos.
Zawahri described Khadafy as an enemy of Islam and criticized him for abandoning his "weapons and equipment to ... crusader masters".
He was referring to Libya's promise in 2003 to give up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and accept responsibility for bombing aircraft over Scotland and Niger in 1988 and 1989. The moved ended years of Libyan isolation.
Al-Zawahri said the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group had joined the militant organization and he urged mujahideen in North Africa to topple the leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
"Today, with grace from God, the Muslim nation witnesses a blessed step ... Honorable members of the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya announce that they are joining the Al-Qaida group to continue the march of their brothers," Zawahri said.
The Libyan group would be the second militant organization to join Al-Qaida this year after Algeria's armed GSPC said in January it had won approval from Osama bin Laden to rename itself Al-Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.
The Algerian-based network has claimed responsibility for a series of recent suicide bombs. Bombings in Morocco and gunfights in Tunisia have also raised fears that Al-Qaida could be expanding in the north African Maghreb states.
The Fighting Islamic Group first announced its presence in 1995, vowing to overthrow Libyan leader Khadafy and launching a violent campaign in the OPEC oil exporting nation.
Security analysts say it is a loose organization that has many followers in Western countries, especially Britain. But it split last year after some members renounced violence in exchange for a government amnesty.
Analysts say a hard core of the Fighting Islamic Group based around Benghazi in eastern Libya remains active, thanks partly to the protection of tribal leaders, but the government has kept the area under tight control.
Group members have also been found among insurgents fighting US-led forces in Iraq and some may have already joined the Algeria-based wing of Al-Qaida, said Anne Guidicelli of Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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