Dubai: Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden is still alive and leading a holy war against the West, the group's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an internet video on Wednesday.
"I bring a message of joy to all Muslims and Mujahedeen that al-Qaeda is expanding and strengthening its root. Sheikh Osama bin Laden is still leading its jihad," Zawahri said in a video posted on a website frequently used by militants.
"Al-Qaeda has transformed into a popular organisation confronting a new crusader Zionist campaign, in defence of all violated Muslim lands," added Zawahri.
However, it was not clear exactly when or where the interview was filmed. Osama and his second-in-command Zawahri, are believed to be hiding in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan and have eluded capture since the 2001 attacks.
Zawahri said that the new 'crusader' campaign by the US and its Western allies was failing as evident by US losses in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"America and its crusader allies have not achieved anything. Its forces in the battleground are receiving blows each day," said Zawahri.
He discredited Iraq's January elections, saying only half the population turned out to vote, and blasted what he called a weak government that was swept into power.
"The Iraqi government is begging Americans not to leave because they know the day Americans leave is the day they are finished, " warned Zawahri.
"Four years after the US war on Afghanistan, only the Taliban exercised real power in the country, chaos reigned in Kabul, and legislative elections held in September were fraudulent as they were monitored by a biased UN," he said.
Zawahri last appeared in October, when he urged Muslims in a video broadcast by al-Jazeera television to help Pakistan's earthquake victims.
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