Al-Qaida’s No. 2 lashes out at moderates

updated 5:18 p.m. ET Dec. 30, 2006

CAIRO, Egypt - The deputy leader of al-Qaida on Saturday accused moderate Arab leaders of being traitors for cooperating with the United States in an audiotaped greeting marking the most important Islamic holiday.

Ayman al-Zawahri's wished the Palestinian people a happy Eid al-Adha but lashed out at Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.

"Those who had sold Palestine, the secular traitors, can not be your brothers. Do not recognize their legitimacy. ... And don't sit with them ... and do not sign with them the documents that will make you lose Palestine," said al-Zawahri in the 15-minute audiotape posted on a Web site commonly used by Islamic insurgents.

Al-Zawahri did not mention Saddam Hussein's execution in the tape, suggesting it was made before the ousted leader's hanging on Saturday.

The tape could not immediately be verified, but a banner posted on the Web site said it came from al-Qaida's media production house, al-Sahab.

The No. 2 al-Qaida leader denounced U.S. ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in an apparent reference to recent arrests and detentions of several members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

"I greet my brothers inside the prisons of Mubarak, the traitor," he said.

Al-Zawahri also extended his Eid greeting to Iraq, praising the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and urged Muslims in Somalia, Chechnya, Indonesia, the Philippines and Algeria to keep on fighting the "infidels and crusaders."

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