The Arab TV station al-Jazeera has aired what it says is a new videotape of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top aide Ayman al-Zawahiri. An audio tape calls on opponents of the American occupation of Iraq to intensify their attacks, just a day before the second anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The video shows Osama bin Laden and his top aide slowly walking down a mountainside, picking their way through the rocks with the help of walking sticks. There was no way to determine where the tape was made or when.
The audio tape with it promises more attacks against American troops in Iraq, who already have suffered almost daily casualties since the ouster of Saddam Hussein five months ago.
'What you saw until now are only skirmishes', the voice says in Arabic, 'the true epic has not yet begun'.
The voice, assumed to be that of Ayman al-Zawahiri, urges al-Qaida supporters to 'Bury them in the Iraqi graveyard'.
The tape also urges Palestinian radicals to continue their attacks against Israel.
The video and audio tapes have surfaced on Qatar's al-Jazeera TV network a day before the second anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
