Al Qaeda to declare war on Musharraf
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CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, al Qaeda announced Thursday.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second-in-command, is seen on a tape released Thursday.
The announcement of the upcoming message came as al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places.
Officials in Pakistan confirmed Thursday that Musharraf, who also is Pakistan's military chief, would seek a second five-year term as president.
Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan's Darfur region.
The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by al Qaeda around the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages -- including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.
A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.
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"Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war),' from sheik Osama bin Laden, God protect him" the banner read.
"Urgent, al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama bin Laden," it read.
Such advertisements usually precede the release of the video by one to three days, according to IntelCenter, a U.S. counterterrorism group that monitors militant messages.
The sophisticated 80-minute video released Thursday on the same Web site was in the style of a documentary, intersplicing the speech by al-Zawahiri with footage from the September 11 attacks, interviews with experts and officials taken from Western and Arab television stations, and old footage and audiotapes of bin Laden.
Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military's July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants' leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.
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CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, al Qaeda announced Thursday.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second-in-command, is seen on a tape released Thursday.
The announcement of the upcoming message came as al Qaeda released a new video in which bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places.
Officials in Pakistan confirmed Thursday that Musharraf, who also is Pakistan's military chief, would seek a second five-year term as president.
Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan's Darfur region.
The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by al Qaeda around the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages -- including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.
A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.
Don't Miss
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Lawyer: If re-elected, Musharraf will quit as army chief
"Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war),' from sheik Osama bin Laden, God protect him" the banner read.
"Urgent, al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama bin Laden," it read.
Such advertisements usually precede the release of the video by one to three days, according to IntelCenter, a U.S. counterterrorism group that monitors militant messages.
The sophisticated 80-minute video released Thursday on the same Web site was in the style of a documentary, intersplicing the speech by al-Zawahiri with footage from the September 11 attacks, interviews with experts and officials taken from Western and Arab television stations, and old footage and audiotapes of bin Laden.
Al-Zawahiri began by condemning the Pakistani military's July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants' leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.
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