Al-Qaida issues warning of new terror attacks

By Nadia Abou El-Magd

Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt — A spokesman for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network has repeated threats to carry out new terror attacks and said in a video aired Saturday that Muslims in the United States and Britain should avoid airplanes and tall buildings.

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, speaking on a videotape on Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite channel, also accused President Bush, his father, former President Clinton and the prime ministers of Israel and Britain of leading "crusaders" guilty of killing Muslims.

"The blood of those will not be lost in vain, God willing," he said.

The eight-minute statement was the third released by bin Laden’s organization since the U.S.-led bombardment against the Taliban and al-Qaida began last Sunday, Oct. 7. Abu Ghaith said in the tape that he was speaking on the fifth day of bombing, which was Thursday.

He said the U.S.-led air assault on Afghanistan has "eradicated entire villages," but he did not name them. Abu Ghaith also pledged to stand beside Afghanistan and praised Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. He did not mention bin Laden.

Washington has said it is trying to avoid civilian deaths in its campaign, launched to root out bin Laden, the top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"We dismiss it. This is just more propaganda," White House spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise said Saturday night of the videotape.

Abu Ghaith repeated warnings made earlier this week of more attacks. "When al-Qaida promises, it delivers, God willing," he said.

"The storms will not stop. The storms of planes will not stop until you drag your defeated tails from Afghanistan, not until you raise your hands from the Jews in Palestine, not until you lift the embargo on the Iraqi people, not until you leave the Arabian peninsula, not until you stop supporting the Hindus against the Muslims in Kashmir," he said.

He advised Muslims in the United States and Britain "not to ride planes and not to live in high buildings."

Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti who appeared with bin Laden in the first video released by the group Oct. 7, said Bush, his father, Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were "at the head of all the criminals, the Zionists and the crusaders, who have committed the worst practices and greatest atrocities against the Muslim nation."

"Millions of Muslim men, women and children have been killed without committing any sins," he said.

He said al-Qaida had ordered the Americans and British to leave the Arabian Peninsula because the "land will burn with fire under their feet, God willing."

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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