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Cairo: Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Al Qaida announced Thursday.
The announcement of the upcoming message came as Al Qaida released a new video in which Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al Zawahri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts. Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan's Darfur region.
The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by Al Qaida around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, Bin Laden released two messages _ including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.
A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether Bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.
"Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war)', from Shaikh Osama Bin Laden, God protect him" the banner read.
"Urgent, Al Qaida declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama Bin Laden," it read.
Al Zawahri began by condemning the Pakistani military's July assault on Islamic militants who took over the Red Mosque in Islamabad, and he paid tribute to one of the militants' leaders, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the fighting.
The siege "revealed the extent of the despicableness, lowliness and treason of Musharraf and his forces, who don't deserve the honor of defending Pakistan, because Pakistan is a Muslim land, whereas the forces of Musharraf are hunting dogs under (US President George W.) Bush's crucifix," Al Zawahri said.
"Let the Pakistani army know that the killing of Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his male and female students ... has soaked the history of the Pakistan army in shame and despicableness which can only washed away by retaliation," he said.
Bin Laden and Al Zawahri are thought to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, where many analysts believe they have rebuilt Al Qaida's core leadership.
The tone of Thursday's video was triumphal, with Al Zawahri calling for attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa and on UN and African peacekeepers expected to deploy in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
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