April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al- Zawahiri defended insurgent attacks in Iraq, Algeria and Morocco that killed Muslims and blamed the West for using them as human shields, according to a U.S.-based intelligence group. Zawahiri was responding to questions posed to him over the Internet after announcing the online interview in December, according to IntelCenter, based in Alexandria, Virginia.``If there was any innocent who was killed in the Mujahedeen's operations, then it was either an unintentional error, or out of necessity,'' Zawahiri said in the 103-minute audio file released today by al-Qaeda's media production unit, as-Sahab. ``We don't kill innocents, in fact, we fight those who kill innocents.''
Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born doctor who makes frequent video and audio addresses for al-Qaeda, said in the tape that leader Osama bin Laden is ``healthy and well'' and that reports of him being ill are spread by ``the prejudiced ones.''
Bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda network carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, has recorded at least four video and audio tapes since last September from his presumed hiding places on the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. There have been no confirmed sightings of bin Laden since he
Several questions out of the 90 Zawahiri selected to answer challenged him over attacks that have killed Muslim women and children, according to IntelCenter, which provides counterterrorism intelligence support to the U.S., British, Australian and Canadian armed forces.
``Why have you, to this day, not carried out any strike in Israel? Or is it easier to kill Muslims in the markets? Maybe it is necessary to take some geography lessons, because your maps only show the Muslims' states,'' asked one questioner, identified as Mudarris Jughrafiya.
| I wish I had planted that question, heh ... |
Another questioner, identified as Algerian medical student Talib Jami'i Tib al-Jazaa'ir, challenged Zawahiri over the Dec. 11 suicide bombings in Algiers. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attacks on the United Nations office and the Constitutional Council building, which killed more than 60 people, including 17 UN workers.
Those killed were ``not from the innocents,'' said Zawahiri. ``They are from the crusader unbelievers and the government troops who defend them.''
The deputy leader also defended his past criticism of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which he said shouldn't participate in the government of the Gaza Strip. ``I took a gradual approach with them, but they didn't heed the opinion of their brothers,'' he said.
Zawahiri said he expected the jihad, or holy war, to move to Jerusalem when U.S. forces leave Iraq. ``There is no doubt that the American collapse has begun,'' he said. ``The raids on New York and Washington were identifying marks of this collapse, but I point out that the collapse of empires doesn't come in a single moment.''
Zawahiri said he sought Allah's guidance when selecting which questions to answer, according to an English-language transcript of the audio file provided by IntelCenter. He said he couldn't respond to some questions for security reasons. He grouped his replies into four sections, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based organization that monitors extremist Web sites. They covered the killing of innocents, Iran, Egypt and the Palestinian territories. The audio file was the first of two installments, Zawahiri said.