Terrorism: Al-Qaeda leader calls for new jihad in Somalia
AKI Dubai, 23 June (AKI) - A senior al-Qaeda leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, has released a video on Islamist websites calling for a new jihad in Somalia.
"I want to speak to you today of a new very important front of our jihad," he said. "Somalia is the goal of the Zionist crusader campaign."The Libyan hardline theologian dedicated his latest speech to the 'young Mujahadeen' fighting Ethiopian troops and the temporary Somalian government.
"I have decided to do something after the recent endorsement of peace agreements between the opposition factions and the government in Mogadishu," he said.
"The mujahadeen do not recognise these agreements and will not adhere to them because they offer help to criminals and combine the truth with falsehoods."
In the message entitled, "There is no peace without Islam", which lasts for 19 minutes, al-Libi criticises every possible reconciliation between Somali parties, inviting 'young mujahadeen' to continue their jihad.
"You must fight and not accept anything but an Islamic state," he said.
"Your leader Adam Hiroo has been killed and that changes nothing on the way to Jihad. Before him, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq, Abu Ibrahim Mustafa in Algeria and Dadallah in Afghanistan but they continued to fight."
Al-Libi questioned the paragraph of the peace accords signed two weeks ago in Djibouti between the government and the Somali opposition that foreshadows the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops and the arrival of international troops.
"The presence of any forces, Ethiopian, from the African Union or the United Nations is unacceptable, because we do not recognise the validity of international law."