Al Qaeda video warns US on 9/11 anniversary

DUBAI, Sep 11 (Reuters) Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, today appeared in a new video in which he urged Muslims to step up their attacks as the United States marked the fifth anniversary of the September. 11 strikes.

CNN, which aired a short extract from the lengthy video, said it was available on Islamist Web sites, but it could not be found on the mainstream sites often used by militant groups.

CNN quoted Zawahri as saying that ''new events'' were on the way. He also urged Muslims to intensify their resistance to the United States.

''Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster,'' Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, said in the video. ''And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with God's permission and guidance.'' Al Jazeera television also aired what appeared to be an excerpt from the same video, which showed Zawahri dressed in white and sitting in front of a book case.

Zawahri held the US-allied governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia responsible for the killing of Muslims in West Asia, Al Jazeera said.

''Israel has been able to dominate Lebanon and Gaza only because Egypt has been totally removed from the conflict with Israel..,'' Zawahri said.

The video appeared to be part of al Qaeda's own commemoration of the attacks on New York and Washington which killed almost 3,000 people. Ceremonies to mark the attacks will be held in Washington and New York.

The group's media arm al-Sahab yesterday released a 92-minute video entitled ''The Manhattan Raids'', a collage of video footage showing bin Laden urging the attackers to prepare themselves for martyrdom, the wills of some of the attackers and clips showing the men training in an unidentified location.

Almost all of the 19 suicide attackers who hijacked 4 airliners during the attack were Saudis.

REUTERS BDP RK1445