Al-Qaeda in Yemen Threatens Attacks Against Infidels in Arab Lands
H/T – Matamoros
Threat on non-Muslims in Arabian Peninsula
ArabTimesOnline
DUBAI (Agencies): An al-Qaeda Yemeni wing threatened attacks on Thursday across the Arabian Peninsula against non-Muslim foreigners including tourists and journalists. “We warn you not to enter the Arabian Peninsula under any name or cover be it as tourists, diplomats, scientists, experts or journalists; you will be a primary target for the mujahideen,” al-Qaeda in the South of the Arabian Peninsula said in the editorial of its e-magazine. “We stand absolved from (the rights) of any infidel who has entered the Arabian Peninsula. (Targeting) their blood and money are religiously right,” it said in reference to non-Muslim foreigners, whom al-Qaeda calls infidels. Al-Qaeda-linked militants in neighbouring Saudi Arabia have waged attacks on Western targets but appear to have been weakened due to a security crackdown. Yemen has seen a surge in small attacks on government buildings and foreign embassies in recent weeks.
In April, an al-Qaeda-linked group said it fired three mortar rounds at a complex housing Americans and other Westerners in Sanaa. No one was hurt. The attack was aimed at expelling infidels from the Arabian Peninsula, home to Islam’s holiest sites, it said. In March, a school near the US embassy was hit by mortars injuring 13 girls and five Yemeni soldiers in an attack Washington said was aimed at its mission. Al-Qaeda in the South of the Arabian Peninsula said it would not uphold any treaties between the government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and any other country. “Our sheikh … Osama bin Laden had made you an offer but you have ignored the truce,” it said. “No one can seek to be secure unless through permission from the sheikh of Islam, the renovator, Osama bin Laden,” it said.
In April 2004, bin Laden offered Europeans a truce if they withdrew troops from Muslim nations.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said in a new audio message released Friday that the terrorist organization will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.
The terrorist leader’s third message this year came as US President George W. Bush was wrapping up his visit to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.
Bin Laden said the fight for the Palestinian cause was the most important factor driving al-Qaeda’s war with the West and fueled 19 Muslims to carry out the suicide attacks against the US on Sept 11.
“To Western nations … this speech is to understand the core reason of the war between our civilization and your civilizations. I mean the Palestinian cause,” said bin Laden in the close to 10 minute message.
“The Palestinian cause is the major issue for my (Islamic) nation. It was an important element in fueling me from the beginning and the 19 others with a great motive to fight for those subjected to injustice and the oppressed,” added bin Laden.
The authenticity of the message could not be verified, but it was posted on a Web site commonly used by al-Qaeda and the voice resembled the one in past bin Laden audiotapes. IntelCenter, a US group that monitors al-Qaeda message traffic, said the audio message was accompanied by a photo of bin Laden wearing a white robe and turban next to a picture of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. It was unclear when the photo of bin Laden was taken.
The al-Qaeda leader said the Western media managed to brainwash people over the past 60 years by “portraying the Jewish invaders, the occupiers of our land, as the victims while it portrayed us as the terrorists.” “Sixty years ago, the Israeli state didn’t exist. Instead, it was established on the land of Palestine raped by force,” said bin Laden. “Israelis are occupying invaders whom we should fight.”
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel dismissed bin Laden’s new message. “We do not relate or pay attention to the words of this terrorist lunatic,” he said. “The time has come for him to be apprehended and pay for his crimes.” Bin Laden criticized Western leaders like the US president who participated in Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations. Bush feted Israel on Thursday and predicted that its 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today’s oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.
Authorities in France, Germany and the Netherlands on Friday detained at least 10 people suspected of helping to fund al-Qaeda-linked militants with roots in Uzbekistan, officials said. One suspect was detained in Germany, another in the Netherlands, with the rest detained in France, said a senior French police official who was only authorized to discuss the arrests on condition of anonymity. The suspects’ nationalities were not given but officials said they were Turkic-speaking. French police suspect they collected funds for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a militant group said by the United States to have close ties to al-Qaeda. The senior official described the arrests as “preventative” because the funds thought to have been collected were not known to have been used to carry out terror attacks.
