Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda leader, threatened to dispatch suicide bombers to the United States and to attack any forces joining the US-led occupation in Iraq, in a tape aired Saturday by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television.
"We will continue to fight you and we will carry out martyrdom operations in and outside the United States until you stop being unfair," he warned in an audiotaped "message to the American people."
"We reserve the right to retaliate at the proper time and place against all states that participate in this unfair war, namely Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy," he said.
"Islamic countries that take part will not be excluded. This applies particularly to the Gulf states, chiefly Kuwait, (which served as) launchpad for the crusader forces."
In a "message to the Muslim Iraqi people" bin Laden praised their "jihad," against the US occupiers, paying tribute to the "heroes" in Baghdad, Baqubah, Mosul and al-Anbar province.
He also praised "Ansar al-Islam, the descendants of Saladin."
The speaker also called on "Muslim youths everywhere, especially in countries neighboring (Iraq) and Yemen," to "roll up their sleeves" and join the jihad.
He said the United States had become "bogged down in the quagmires of the Tigris and Euphrates," and was reduced to "begging for mercenaries from east and west" to join its forces in Iraq. (Albawaba.com)
