A videotape has been obtained by Al Jazeera that shows Mustafa Abu al-Yazid presenting himself as the leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
In the video, al-Yazid said that soon al Qaeda fighters would be carrying out attacks and that al Qaeda's Arab fighters were working "
side by side" with its non-Arab fighters.
Al-Yazid declared: "
The number of fighters is increasing. The support they receive from Muslims in Afghanistan is almost total."
Al-Yazid said that al Qaeda fighters had been training during winter and were now ready to carry out attacks. And he said that attacks against "
the Americans, Nato and the treasonous government" of Afghanistan would be increasing. He promised "
defeat, expulsion and failure for the enemy crusaders and their apostate helpers."
He swore his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
"God bless our two emirs, Sheikh Osama and Sheikh Ayman...May both sheikhs, Osama and Ayman, remain a thorn in the side of Bush."
Al-Yazid said that the al Qaeda operative who was supposed to lead al Qaeda in Iraq, Abdel Hadi al-Iraqi, had been arrested in Turkey. He said Ankara gave him to the Americans and accused Turkey of playing up to the U.S. to gain American backing for its attempt to join the European Union.
American officials declared in April that al-Iraqi supervised assassination attempts against Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and that he led al Qaeda operations against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
They claimed that after months in the custody of the CIA, al-Iraqi was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. They did not mention any detention in Turkey.
A CIA spokesman called al-Iraqi a "
veteran jihadist."
Afghan head of al-Qaeda named
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