Al-Qaeda spokesman says more attacks are planned

AFGHANISTAN: Al-qaeda's chief spokesman claimed yesterday that the organisation's senior figures were alive and well and were preparing to mount fresh attacks on the US.

In a taped message broadcast by Qatar's al-Jazira satellite television channel, Mr Suleiman Abu Ghaith said al-Qaeda's founder and head, Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11th attacks on the US, had survived the military campaign in Afghanistan.

"I want to assure Muslims that Sheikh Osama . . . is in good and prosperous health and that rumours of his illness and injury at Tora Bora have no truth."

He said "the whole world" would soon have the opportunity to "watch an interview with Sheikh Osama. He rejected US reports that bin Laden's deputy, Yuman al-Alizari, was injured during the fighting.

"I can say that 98 per cent of the leadership of al-Qaeda are safe and are running their affairs perfectly," Mr Abu Ghaith, a former Kuwaiti national, said. He also confirmed intelligence that the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is alive.

He said the al-Qaeda was behind a fuel tanker explosion near a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Jerba in April in which 21 people died, 14 of them Germans.

An al-Qaeda member "could not see his brothers in Palestine butchered and murdered . . . (while) he saw Jews cavorting in Djerba. This provoked his jihad [holy war] spirit and zeal and he carried out this successful operation," Mr Abu Ghaith stated.

This was the first direct claim of al-Qaeda involvement in the blast blamed on the organisation by the German authorities.

Although it is not clear when the tape was made or received by al-Jazira or where Mr Abu Ghaith is currently based, it is certain that the recording was made recently.

He referred to the controversy in the US about whether President Bush received prior warnings of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Mr Abu Ghaith said the US should brace for another attack. "As long as America insists on its unjust and biased policy towards Muslims in favour of Jews and Christians around the world, then, God willing, we will continue to hit it anywhere in the world..

"America knows the truth of what we say. We have the ability to carry out our threats and in the coming days and months we will prove to the world the truth of what we say."

He made the most forthright al-Qaeda admission of responsibility for September 11th to date. "God gave us a historic and great victory that broke the backs of Americans and broke the back of the greatest power in the world."

He also praised the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam, and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

Mr Abu Ghaith's message can be expected to prompt the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen Tommy Franks, who is due to visit Islamabad this week, to urge the Pakistani government to enhance its efforts to capture al-Qaeda operatives in the frontier areas.