Attack Ethiopia troops, Qaeda leader to Somalis

Dubai, Dec 5: Osama bin Laden's top aide urged Somali Islamists in an audio tape posted on the Internet today to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla campaign of suicide and other forms of attacks against Ethiopian forces in Somalia.

''As happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the world's strongest power was defeated by the campaigns of the mujahideen troops going to heaven, so its slaves shall be defeated on the Muslim lands of Somalia,'' said Ayman al-Zawahri.

''You must ambush, mine, raid and (carry out) martryrdom campaigns so that you can wipe them out,'' said Zawahri, al Qaeda's deputy leader.

The tape was posted on a Web site used by Islamist militants and al Qaeda-linked groups.

Ethiopian forces helped Somalia's interim government rout Islamists in a two-week war.

The Somalia Islamic Courts Council, which had imposed sharia law across much of the south, abandoned the capital Mogadishu last week in the face of the advancing Ethiopian and government forces.

REUTERS

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