US: Voice in new al-Qaida message from bin Laden

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-21 10:14

WASHINGTON -- The voice in a new message from al-Qaida was believed to belong to Osama bin Laden, the White House said on Thursday.

"I know that the intelligence community has analyzed the tape and they do believe that it is the voice of Osama bin Laden," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in news briefing.


A video grab from an undated footage from the Internet shows Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden making statements from an unknown location. The voice in a new message from al-Qaida was believed to belong to Osama bin Laden, the White House said on Thursday. [Agencies]

An audio message, titled "May Our Mothers Be Bereaved Of Us If We Fail to Help Our Prophet," was posted on an al-Qaida's website on Wednesday, as the world marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

In the five-minute message, the voice self-claimed bin Laden said that the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan have not ended the war, but increased their determination to resist.

"His organization continues to specifically target and lethally target innocent men and women and children around the world and bring destruction to people everywhere who don't agree with their radical views," Perino said.

During a speech on Wednesday at the Pentagon, US President George W. Bush hailed the military achievement in Iraq, including elimination of thousands of al-Qaida's Iraqi militants.

"In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated," Bush said.

However, he admitted that the Iraq war was "longer, harder and more costly" than the US government anticipated.

The United States launched the Iraq War on March 20, 2003, claiming former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government had mass destructive weapons and links with al-Qaida.

In five years, the United States has not yet found any evidence to support its claims or traced bin Laden who was believed to hide in the mountains in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas.



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