Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused some Arab leaders of being "complicit" with Israel during its devastating offensive in Gaza, in an audio tape broadcast by media on Saturday. "It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusade Zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate," said bin Laden, who carries a 25 million dollar U.S. bounty on his head."The countries of the Muslim world from Indonesia to Mauritania are divided into two: Some of them are crooked, while others are even more crooked," he said. "The Holocaust of Gaza amid a long siege is an important historical event that confirms the importance of distinguishing between Muslims and hypocrites," he added. Bin Laden, called on jihadists to liberate Iraq from the US army and then launch attacks on Israel from Jordan.
"Our state after the Gaza (offensive) should not be the same as our state before it. We should work hard and prepare for jihad (holy war) in order to bring about what is right," said the al-Qaeda leader, who is widely believed to have found refuge in Pakistan's largely lawless tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.
The audio tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, was the second by bin Laden in two months in which he has focused on the Gaza offensive. In an audio tape posted on an Internet site on Jan. 14, he called on Muslims across the world to take revenge against Israel for the blitz, charging that the onslaught had been timed to take advantage of the final days of the Bush administration.