CHRONOLOGY-Messages attributed to al Qaeda
Source: Reuters
Dec 20 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al Zawahri said in a video tape aired by Al Jazeera on Wednesday his group would continue to target Western countries so long as Muslims were under attack. Following is a chronology of major statements attributed to Osama bin Laden, Zawahri or their allies in the last six months. At least 37 messages have been broadcast since Al Jazeera aired the first statement by bin Laden in 2001. June 1 - Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Musab al-Zarqawi calls on fellow Sunnis to reject any reconciliation with "infidel" Shi'ites, in an audiotape. June 9 - Zawahri urges Palestinians, in a video, to reject a referendum on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel. June 22 - Zawahri vows vengeance against the United States for the death of Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike. June 30 - Bin Laden praises Zarqawi as a "lion of jihad", and vows al Qaeda will continue to fight U.S. forces and their allies "everywhere", according to an Internet audiotape. July 1 - Bin Laden warns Iraq's Shi'ite majority of retaliation for attacks on Sunni Arabs and says his group will fight the United States anywhere in the world. July 7 - A year on from the London bombings, al Qaeda issues a video with comments from Zawahri, bin Laden and one bomber. Zawahri says bombers Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan had been trained in al Qaeda camps. July 27 - Zawahri, in video statement titled "The Zionist-crusader war on Lebanon and the Palestinians", calls on Muslims to fight attacks on their countries. Sept. 29 - Zawahri calls U.S. President George W. Bush a "lying failure" for saying progress had been made in the war on terrorism. He also calls the Pope a charlatan because of his remarks on Islam. Dec. 20 - Zawahri says that al Qaeda will continue to target Western countries so long as Muslims were under attack. Zawahri says Washington is scrambling for an exit from Iraq and Afghanistan, but is approaching the wrong parties. -- He also says that elections would not free Palestinian land from Israeli occupation and that any path other than holy war would lead to "loss and defeat".
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