Al-Qaeda deputy leader urges strikes on West

DUBAI (AFP) - Osama bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a new video calling for Islamic fighters to strike Western interests worldwide and for regime change in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"The struggle against the corrupt regimes and the corruptors is in two phases... In the short term, one must take aim at the interests of the Crusaders and Jews," Zawahiri said in the 95-minute video shown on Wednesday.

"All those who have attacked the (Islamic) nation must pay the price, in our countries and theirs, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine and in Somalia, but above all where one can strike a blow against their interests," he said.

It was the eighth video released by Zawahiri so far this year, but contained no reference to the failed car bombing attacks in London and Glasgow, nor an attack on Spanish tourists in Yemen that left nine people dead.

It was issued by Al-Qaeda's media outlet As-Sahab (which means the cloud in Arabic) as the United States marked the July 4 independence day.

Zawahiri, appearing in a white robe and turban, predicted defeat for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying "The wind --- by the grace of Allah -- is blowing against Washington."

The Egyptian-born Zawahiri frequently emerges in video or audio tapes to speak for the Al-Qaeda network. With bin Laden now staying out of the public eye, he has become its most senior spokesman as well.

The bearded, bespectacled Zawahiri has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head and officials say he is the Al-Qaeda network's main strategist and ideologist as well as its second-in-command.

Zawahiri referred to a long-term plan, consisting of using Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia as camps for jihadi preparation and training.

"In the long term one must work seriously to change these corrupt regimes and corruptors," said Zawahiri, who spends much of the video titled "The Advice of One Concerned" attacking Egypt and Saudi Arabia, both US allies.

To achieve that aim "one must win over popular sympathy for a change to Islamic Jihadism," he said, but also emphasising "the necessity of using force to provoke that change."

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