Counterterrorism Blog

Banner announcing the new Zawahiri tape. Banner compliments of Rita Katz and Laura Mansfield.

Rita Katz of the Site Institute and Laura Mansfield informed us Wednesday night that a new tape from Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri on the situation in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon would be released soon, as announced by AQ's As Sahab Productions. Rita Katz reported that the tape is titled, "The Zionist-Crusader Enemy in Gaza and Lebanon." Last week, a site not affiliated with Al Qaeda created a brief flurry of interest by announcing an upcoming OBL tape, but that proved to be a phony announcement, and neither Rita Katz, Laura Mansfield, nor Evan Kohlmann trusted that announcement. See my post on that episode, along with a link to a story on a fatwa against Hezbollah by a leading Saudi Wahabi cleric and a translation of that fatwa by Evan.

UPDATE 7/27: The tape is out - Zawahiri refers to "our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon" (a corrected reference to the quote) and says, "The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires... It is a Jihad for God's sake and will last until (our) religion prevails...We will attack everywhere... The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price." The AP story notes that "a picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with pictures of two other militants." Asharq Al-Awsat quotes his call to fellow Muslims, "Oh Muslims everywhere, I call on you to fight and become martyrs in the war against the Zionists and the Crusaders." Al Jazeera cites this quote, "The war with Israel does not depend on ceasefires... It is a jihad for God's sake and will last until religion prevails... from Spain to Iraq. We will attack everywhere." A message of support by Al Qaeda leadership for the Shiite Hezbollah is an unexpected and troubling development. More on the translation later.

Laura Mansfield has a copy of the video (File size is approximately 19M.) Rita Katz has a full translation of the tape (Acrobat file). Here is a Reuters chronology of major Al Qaeda statements issued thus far in 2006.

Evan Kohlmann comments via email: Zawahiri never said that Hezbollah were his "brothers"... he only said that Al-Qaida has "brothers" in Gaza and Lebanon. Be very careful with this, there is a lot of turmoil and debate in the jihadi community over the exact meaning of this tape. Some are saying that it means Zawahiri is pushing for a pragmatic temporary alliance with the Shiites, at least while they are busy dealing with the Jews. Others are saying that Zawahiri made a purely political speech that simply shows Al-Qaida trying to manipulate the situation to score propaganda points. Among those who share the latter view, there is great emphasis on Zawahiri's discussion of the use of the term "downtrodden."

The SITE Institute also reports on a Taliban message of support for Hezbollah, urging Muslims to unite against “Zionist and the American oppressions,” or “then the Muslim nations will deeply sink into the hole of slavery.”