Britain's decision to "flee" Iraq shows the insurgency is stronger than ever, al Qaeda's number two said Sunday, after British forces transferred security control in Basra province to the Iraqis.
In a 98-minute al Qaeda videotape with English subtitles, Ayman Al-Zawahiri said recent reports from Iraq reveal "an increase in the strength of the Mujahideen and a deterioration in the Americans' conditions, despite their desperate attempts to deceive and mislead.
"And the decision of the British to flee is sufficient" proof, Zawahiri said in a video clip provided to AFP by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private US company that tracks Jihadist activities. Al Qaeda released the videotape to jihadist forums Sunday, according to SITE.
Iraq formally took security control of the southern oil province of Basra from British forces Sunday, paving the way for Britain to sharply reduce its nearly 5,000-strong troop presence.
Basra, the ninth of Iraq's 18 provinces to be returned to local control by the US-led coalition, is the fourth and final province under British control since the 2003 invasion to be transferred. Zawahiri however said that in his view Iraq is the world's foremost arena for Jihad and that "the condition of the Iraqi Jihad is-overall-excellent."
He said US claims of progress, including in the September 2007 report to US Congress by top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, are "empty propaganda meant to cover up the American failure in Iraq."
He urged Muslims to join jihad in several countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Chechnya, and Algeria, where al Qaeda claimed a twin-car bomb attack last week that left at least 34 dead.
"We must strip those regimes of legitimacy, and recognise neither their constitutions nor their laws nor participate in their elections and councils which rule by other than what Allah sent down," he said, according to a SITE summary.
The al Qaeda leader turned his rhetorical rage on Iran, alleging that it had worked with the Americans to undermine the Taliban and to divide Iraq, and was soft on Israel. Tehran, he said, was guilt7y of "a historic mark of shame against itself and all of the Shiites who follow it," which "will stay in the memory of the Muslims for a long time to come," he said.
Asked about the recent turmoil in Pakistan, Zawahiri said Benazir Bhutto's return to Pakistan and President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency were American orchestrations to "remedy the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan," according to SITE. "Musharraf and his regime are reeling in their final days," the al Qaeda leader said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday that the handover of the oil-rich province of Basra by the British military to Iraqi forces will not diminish Britain's role in Iraq. "The transfer of authority marks a change of British engagement in Iraq, but not a dimunition of our engagement," Miliband told reporters during a visit to Baghdad.
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