Baghdad, 13 Oct. (AKI) - The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claims the letter found by US soldiers in Iraq, which is said to be written by al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, is false. In a statement released over the Internet he denies the authenticity of the letter, and accuses the US forces of making up the story as a slur on al-Qaeda. In the letter the Pentagon says al-Zawahiri warns that the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq risk alienating the wider Muslim population. He also writes that they have lost many of their key leaders.
"Everything in the letter attributed to Ayman al-Zawahiri is false," al-Zarqawi's statement says. "We don't know where they found it or when they found it. We from the al-Qaeda organisation announce that this news is completely unfounded. It is a lie which comes from the military camp of the infidels, from the Green Zone and the command of the crusader campaign, whose news are always far from the truth of the battlefield." In the letter from al-Zawahiri to al-Zarqawi, the Egyptian doctor defines the American occupation as "an historic opportunity" for the Islamic militants to win popular support. "Our plans must aim to involve the Muslim masses and lead the Mujahadeen movement [of fighters in the holy war] towards the masses, and not to distance the battle from them," said the letter, which is dated July 9, but was first made public last week.
US intelligence sources say there is no doubt as to the letter's authenticity. It also alludes to the difficulties the leaders of al-Qaeda face, and among these is what al-Zawahiri defines "the real danger" represented by Pakistani troops searching for wanted militants along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The letter also issues a warning to al-Zarqawi, who, in a letter to Osama bin Laden in January 2004, defined the use of attacks on Iraqi Shiites useful to the cause. But al-Zawahiri is very clear about his view on this subject, saying such attacks are "actions which the masses neither understand nor approve of."
Harking back to the fall of the Taliban regime following the US invasion in autumn 2001, al-Zawahiri warns al-Zarqawi "not to repeat the mistakes of the Taliban, who limited participation in government to only students and the population of Kandahar. The result was that the Afghan people quickly felt distanced from them. Even the most faithful limited themselves to watching and, at the moment of the invasion, the emirate collapsed in just a few days, because the people were passive or hostile."
"Because of this, I stress again to you and all your brothers the need to lead the political as well as the military action through union, cooperation and the bringing together of all the leaders who exercise influence in the Iraqi political arena."
In the letter, al-Zawahiri also refers back to the US defeat in Vietnam and urges al-Zarqawi to "get ready now, before you are overtaken by events, and before you are surprised by the conspiracy of the Americans and United Nations and their plans for filling the void when they leave [Iraq]." |
