Al-Qaida leader says Afghans must rebel
KABUL, Afghanistan — al-Qaida's No. 2 leader urged Afghans in a new videotape today to rise up against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, prompting President Hamid Karzai to denounce the terror fugitive as "the enemy of the Afghan people."
The posting of Ayman al-Zawahri's videotape on an Islamic Web site followed a coalition military warning Wednesday that "significant violence" lies ahead in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of troops are fighting a deadly Taliban resurgence.
The taped message was al-Zawahri's sixth this year and was posted on a Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida and other militants' statements.
"I am calling upon the Muslims in Kabul in particular and in all Afghanistan in general and for the sake of God to stand up in an honest stand in the face of the infidel forces that are invading Muslim lands," said al-Zawahri, wearing a white turban and sitting in front of a black backdrop with an automatic rifle next to him.
The Egyptian-born fugitive also called on "the young men of Islam, in the universities and schools of Kabul, to carry out their duties in defense of their religion, honor, land and country."
The 3½-minute tape, entitled "American Crimes in Kabul," appears to have been made the day after a May 29 accident in which a U.S. military truck crashed into traffic in Kabul, killing up to five people. The incident sparked anti-foreigner riots in Kabul that left about 20 people dead — the deadliest unrest in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
"I direct my speech today to my Muslim brothers in Kabul who lived the bitter events yesterday and saw by their own eyes a new proof of the criminal acts of the American forces against the Afghani people," al-Zawahri said on the videotape.
Unlike al-Zawahri's previous messages, which appeared aimed at Americans, the latest video has no English subtitles. He spoke in Arabic, and Web sites carried translations in Pashtun and Farsi, two languages widely spoken in Afghanistan.
