DUBAI, Dec 7: Al Qaeda’s deputy leader Ayman al Zawahri on Wednesday urged militants to attack oil targets in Muslim states and said Osama bin Laden was still directing its ‘holy war’ on the West. “I bring a message of joy to all Muslims and mujahideen that Al Qaeda is spreading, expanding and strengthening. Its prince Sheikh Osama bin Laden is still leading its jihad,” he said in a video interview posted on a web site on Wednesday.

It was the first apparent word from a top Al Qaeda official for a year that Osama bin Laden was still alive.

But the fate of the Western world’s most wanted man remained uncertain as Al Jazeera television admitted hours later that the videotape of Ayman Zawahri was three months old.

“We got the videotape in September, and back then we aired what we thought were the important parts,” Al Jazeera’s editor-in-chief Ahmad Sheikh said.

“There was a misunderstanding today, and we aired these extracts today by mistake.”

Ahmad Sheikh was referring to a videotape aired by Al Jazeera in September in which Zawahri claimed that Al Qaeda was behind the deadly bombings in London in July that killed 52 people plus four suicide bombers.

Osama bin Laden has not been heard of since a Dec 27, 2004, audiotape in which he anointed Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted man, as Al Qaeda’s leader in the country.

GOD’S PROTECTION: Asked why US forces had failed to capture Osama and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Zawahri said: “The main reason is God’s protection. The second reason is that Muslims opened their hearts and homes to the mujahideen. They took them in and protected them despite all risks.”

Ayman al Zawahri urged militants to take their campaign to a new level by attacking oil sites in pro-US Gulf states.

“I call on mujahideen to concentrate their attacks on Muslims’ stolen oil, most of the revenues of which go to the enemies of Islam while most of what they leave is seized by the thieves who rule our countries,” he said.

In Washington, a US official said intelligence analysts were examining the tape, but declined all other comment.

IRAQ ‘CATASTROPHE’ FOR AMERICA: Zawahri said the United States had been defeated in Iraq and would eventually cut its losses and pull out its troops.

“Iraq is a catastrophe for America and Americans will leave, it will only be a matter of time.

“I say to (President) Bush: you entered Iraq with lies, you will lose Iraq and lie about it and you will leave with the pretext that you have completed your mission ... America only has to decide on the number of (troops) it wishes to lose before withdrawing.”

Zawahri said Washington would keep military bases in Iraq to back its ‘agent government’ and urged guerillas ‘to unite to free Iraq and install Shariat’.

The video showed Zawahri speaking calmly against a white background to an off-camera interviewer who said the interview was to mark the fourth anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in US cities.

Zawahri said Britons had only their government to blame for Al Qaeda’s suicide bombings in London in July, because it had failed to accept a truce offered by Osama by bin Laden in exchange for withdrawing its forces from ‘Islam’s homes’.

“So let them taste the price of their government’s foolishness,” he said. “Whoever attacks us, we cut off his hand ... so let them pay the price of this offensive, they should be patient because the battle is only just beginning.”

Osama and Zawahri have eluded capture since US-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban government in 2001.

Zawahri urged Muslims to support Al Qaeda ‘with money, men and prayer’, saying the new ‘crusader’ campaign was failing, as shown by US losses in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Four years after the US occupation of Afghanistan, only the Taliban had real power, chaos reigned in its capital Kabul, and legislative elections held in September were fraudulent as they were monitored by a biased United Nations, he said.

“If it wasn’t for the Pakistani army’s continuous support to Americans, they would have left (Afghanistan) a long time ago and they will leave soon, God willing.”

He poured scorn on Iraq’s January elections, saying only half the population had turned out to vote, and blasted what he called a weak government swept into power with US help.

“The (Afghan) government is begging Americans not to leave because they know the day Americans leave is the day they are finished.”

Last December Osama bin Laden called on Muslims in an audio tape to wage holy war against US forces and the government in Iraq.

Zawahri last appeared in a video tape in October, urging Muslims to help Pakistan’s earthquake victims.

In Wednesday’s tape, he said reform in the Arab world could only be achieved if Islamic rule replaced ‘corrupt regimes’.

He also said Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza strip was the result of ‘martyrdom; by Palestinians — a reference to suicide bombings — and urged them not to give up their armed struggle. —Reuters/AFP