Al-Qaida urges Somalian Islamists to fight
Jan 5, 2007 (CAIRO) — Al-Qaida’s deputy leader urged Somalia’s Islamist guerrillas to ambush and raid Ethiopian forces with land mines and suicide attacks until they can reclaim their country from “crusaders,” according to an Internet audiotape posted Friday.
Pro-government Somalian and Ethiopian forces drove Council of Islamic Courts militia from the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, and much of the southern part of the country last week. But the militants have vowed to launch an Iraqi-style guerrilla war as part of a bloody reprisal.
“I speak to you today as the crusader Ethiopian invasion forces violate the soil of the beloved Muslim Somalia,” Ayman al-Zawahri said in the audiotape.
The Egyptain-born al-Zawahri also urged Islamist militia to remain fighting until Ethiopian forces are defeated.
“I call upon the Muslim nation in Somalia to remain in the new battlefield that is one of the crusader battlefields that are being launched by America and its allies and the United Nations against Islam and Muslims,” al-Zawahri said.
“Launch ambushes, land mines, raids and suicidal combats until you consume them as the lions and eat their prey,” al-Zawahri added.
The more than five-minute audiotape couldn’nt immediately be verified but was aired on a Web site frequently used by militants and carried the logo of al-Qaida’s media production wing, al-Sahab.
Three al-Qaida suspects wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa are believed to be leaders of the Islamic movement in Somalia. The Islamists deny having any links to terror network.
On Thursday, Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers battled about 600 Islamic militiamen in the southern tip of the Horn of Africa nation. U.S. Navy forces also prevented the militants from fleeing by sea, authorities said.
Regional diplomats are working on the speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to Somalia. Jendayi Frazer, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Africa, has said she hoped peacekeepers from region could be deployed by the end of the month.
Al-Zawahri also told the Somalia Islamists not to be intimidated by the United States, saying America’s struggle with insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq have paved the way for the militants’ victory. He also reminded the militants that the U.S. and United Nations previously were defeated in Somalia.
In 1992, a U.N. peacekeeping force, including U.S. troops, arrived in Somalia but the experiment in nation-building ended the next year when fighters loyal to a Somalian clan leader shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and battled American troops, killing 18 servicemen.
“My brother Muslims in Somalia, don’t be traumatized by America’s force because you have defeated it previously with the support of Allah, and it is weaker today than before,” al-Zawahri said in the audiotape.
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 also urged Muslims in other Mideast and African countries to support Somalia’s Islamists with fighters, money and expertise.
The audiotape is the first al-Zawahri has released this year, after having boosted his taped messages in 2006.
(AP)