Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader has urged Somalia’s Islamist guerrillas to remain steadfast in their battle against ”invaders” and ”crusaders”, according to an internet audiotape released on Friday.
Somalia’s Islamic Courts rebels were resoundingly beaten by pro-government and Ethiopian troops earlier this week and chased from the capital, Mogadishu.
Somali and Ethiopian soldiers on land and United States troops at sea also have surrounded hundreds of the Islamic movement’s militiamen on the southern tip of the country.
”I speak to you today as the crusader invader forces of Ethiopia violate the soil of the beloved Muslim Somalia,” Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri said in the audiotape.
”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 added.
The audiotape, longer than five minutes, could not immediately be verified but was aired on a website frequently used by militants. It carried the logo of al-Qaeda’s media production wing, al-Sahab.
The audiotape is the first al-Zawahri has released this year, after having boosted his taped messages in 2006. — Sapa-AP