Posted on 12/20/2003 10:35:03 AM PST by nwctwx
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden attacked the U.S. war on Iraq as part of a new crusade against Islam in an audiotape purported to be by the al Qaeda leader aired on Arabic TV station Al Arabiya on Saturday. "Know that this war is a new crusade against the Islamic world and is a critical war for the whole Islamic nation," said the voice on the tape.
U.S. officials say bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, his top deputy, are believed to be in the mountainous border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, although it is unclear whether they are together.
U.S. forces have been engaged in an intense manhunt for bin Laden since the September 11 attacks, blamed on al Qaeda, killed about 3,000 people in the United States in 2001.
Earlier on Saturday a CIA official in Washington said technical analysis of a separate audio tape aired on Friday of Zawahri showed it was "most likely" authentic.
Arabic television al Jazeera broadcast that tape, in which al Qaeda's second in command said his group was chasing Americans everywhere, including the United States.
Jazeera and Al Arabiya have in the past broadcast similar messages said to be from bin Laden and Zawahri. The CIA has said some of those also appeared to be authentic.
I wish that were true. But remember there were many folks saying the same thing about Hussein.
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