Bin Laden urges jihad against Israel
Terrorist kingpin releases new videotape
By LEE KEATH
Associated Press
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:51 AM PST
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| Israeli soldiers stand on an tank as they prepare for combat missions in Gaza while gathering on the Israel-Gaza border during Israel’s military offensive, today. Israeli aircraft struck a Gaza City cemetery today, pulverizing newly buried bodies, and pounded militants’ weapons positions and arms smuggling tunnels, witnesses and the military said, as guerrillas in Lebanon raised the specter of a new front by sending rockets crashing into northern Israel. |
CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and condemned Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new message aimed at harnessing anger in the Mideast over the Gaza offensive.
Bin Laden spoke in an audiotape posted today on Islamic militant Web sites where al-Qaida usually issues its messages. It was his first tape since May and came nearly three weeks after Israel started its campaign against Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.
The al-Qaida leader also vowed that the terror network would open ‘‘new fronts’’ against the United States and its allies beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. He said President-elect Barack Obama has received a ‘‘heavy inheritance’’ from George W. Bush — two wars and ‘‘the collapse of the economy,’’ which he said will render the United States unable to sustain a long fight against the mujahedeen, or holy warriors.
