14 January,2009 06:25 PM IST | | Reuters
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has called for jihad over the Israeli offensive in Gaza in a new audiotape that appeared on Islamist websites on Wednesday.
"God has bestowed us with the patience to continue the path of jihad for another seven years, and seven and seven years," bin Laden said in the tape that was dated in the current Islamic month.
Bin Laden also condemns Arab governments for preventing their people from acting to 'liberate Palestine.'
The tape was entitled "A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza". "The question is, can America continue its war with us for several more decades to come? Reports and evidence would suggest otherwise," he said.
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The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified.
The Palestinian death toll from the 19-day-old Israeli offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza has risen to about 1,000. Israel says 13 Israelis have been killed.
The Saudi-born terrorist said the global financial crisis had exposed the waning influence of the United States in world affairs and would in turn weaken its ally Israel.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri and their allies since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Last week Zawahri, in an Internet message, called on Muslims to strike Western and Israeli targets around the world over Israel's Gaza raids.
The authenticity of the tape cannot be independently confirmed but the voice resembles bin Laden's as heard in previous messages.
