Al Qaeda warns of more suicide attacks

Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network has threatened more suicide attacks against the United States and Britain in retaliation for the military strikes against Afghanistan, in a message broadcast by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network.

A spokesman for Al Qaeda, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, warned the US and Britain to leave the Arabian Peninsula.

In its message, Al Qaeda has threatened US citizens in the Arabian peninsula and promised to "burn the ground beneath their feet", Mr Ghaith said.

"The storm will not calm as long as you [the United States and Britain] do not end your support for the Jews in Palestine, lift your embargo from around the Iraqi people, and have left the Arabian peninsula," the spokesman said.

Mr Ghaith criticised US Secretary of State Colin Powell for doubting his earlier comments on Tuesday that thousands of young Muslims were looking forward to their death in a "storm of planes that will destroy America".

"Powell knows that if Al Qaeda promised and warned, it will deliver, God willing. The news is what you see, not what you hear.

"Storms are not going to calm, especially the storm of planes, until America withdraws in defeat from Afghanistan," he said.

The Al Qaeda spokesman also singled out both US President George W Bush and his father, the former president, as well as former president Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for "crimes" against Muslims.

"We say to Bush the father, son, Clinton, Blair and Sharon, who are at the head of the Zionist criminals and crusaders, who have committed the worst crimes against millions of Muslims, that their blood [of the Muslims] was not spilled in vain and that we will avenge them," Abu Ghaith said.


US rejects threat

	MULTIMEDIA
	US defence experts say the next phase of the campaign against Afghanistan will include more bombing, covert raids and large scale helicopter attacks. Jill Colgan reports. HELP

The Bush Administration has dismissed as "propaganda" the latest threat by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda group.

"The White House sees it as just more propaganda," White House spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise said.

President George W Bush said earlier in his weekly radio address that the US Government was taking "strong precautions" to protect Americans from more terror attacks at home and abroad.


Guilt

The British Government says the latest statement from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network, threatening new attacks is a clear admission of responsibility for last month's suicide hijackings on New York and Washington.

The BBC reports the Al Qaeda statement said it would hit back at American and British interests in retaliation for the air strikes on Afghanistan.

The latest pre-recorded video statement from Al Qaeda, broadcast on the Gulf-based Jazeera television station, said the storm of aeroplanes would not be calmed.

Muslims in the United States and Britain were advised not to travel by aircraft and to avoid tall buildings, while non-Muslims were advised to leave the Arabian peninsula.

For British Prime Minister Tony Blair it amounts to an admission Osama bin Laden and his associates are responsible for the attacks of September 11.

He has reaffirmed his determination to bring to account Osama bin Laden and those who shelter him.


Communication cut

Taliban officials say a major part of Kabul's communication links with the rest of the world have been cut after overnight US bombing raids.

They say the attacks appear to have cut 90 telephone links operated by a Chinese and Pakistani company connected to a microwave exchange, about 35 kilometres east of the capital.

Officials say there is no more contact through these lines, with the only remaining links through the Afghan Wireless Company.


Indonesia

Indonesia's Vice-President has broken ranks by calling on Washington to halt air strikes on Afghanistan.

The call by Muslim Hamzah Haz reflects a significant political policy rift in the world's biggest Islamic country.

By speaking out, he has broken Indonesian Government policy of avoiding open criticism of US-led air strikes.

He has also said Washington has failed to prove Osama bin Laden was behind the September 11 attacks in the United States.

There are growing tensions in Indonesia about how its leaders are reacting to global events.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri has pledged to combat terrorism.

As leader of the largest Muslim country, she has been under pressure from Parliament, as well as hardline and even some mainstream Muslim groups, to cut relations with Washington over the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan.


Global protests

More than 20,000 people have taken part in the largest protests yet in Britain against the US and British bombing of Afghanistan.

Protesters in the march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square in the centre of London chanted, "no war, we want peace", and carried placards declaring: "Stop This Bloody War".

Among them were a number of British Muslims, who held prayers for peace.

Though noisy, the mood was largely peaceful, although two attempts were made to set fire to flags.

At a rally in Glasgow in Scotland, George Galloway, a deputy for the ruling Labour Party condemned the military action by the United States and Britain as a "terrorist act".

"To follow a crime of massacre with another crime of massacre is equally unconscionable and I believe it is also a terrorist act," he told a gathering of about 1,500 people.

In the south-western Pakistani city of Jacobabad, 11 people, including three policemen, were shot and taken to hospital after anti-US protests erupted into violence near an airfield being used by US forces.

A spokesman for the radical Islamic Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party, which called the demonstation, said one of the protesters was killed but police could not confirm this.

Police spokesman Mohammad Riaz told the AFP news agency three police officers and eight protesters were taken to hospital suffering gunshot wounds when the demonstration turned violent on the outskirts of the city.

Police earlier said they had arrested at least 400 Islamic radicals attempting to join the protest at an airfield which Pakistan has agreed US forces can use for support operations in its campaign against Afghanistan.

The JUI spokesman, Abdul Ghafoor, claimed more than 2,000 people had been arrested trying to enter Jacobabad, where the airfield is located.

Indonesian police have made 65 arrests as anti-US protesters began arriving in the capital, Jakarta.

The protesters included about 500 members of a radical Islamic youth front.

Police confiscated explosives, knives and slingshots from some of the front members, but there are no plans to stop demonstratioins going ahead.


Australia-wide protests

Hundreds of demonstrators have marched through the streets of Australia's capital cities to call for an end to the US led military action against Afghanistan.

The rallies have coincided with International Stop-Star Wars Day.

Several hundred anti-war protesters have marched through Melbourne to rally outside the United States consulate in St Kilda Road.

A vigil has been established, with demonstrators vowing to camp outside the State Library in central Melbourne until all military action is halted.

In Sydney, the rally for peace was organised well before the September 11 attacks, but yesterday's larger than expected turnout reflected the fresh anti-war sentiment shared by a number of people in the community.

Keysar Trad, a representative from the Islamic community, which has been targeted by a string of racist acts over the past month, told the crowd Muslims stand for peace.

"Let's all embrace peace in its entirety and this has been the message of Islam throughout history," he said.

More than 500 people have attended a rally in Fremantle to protest against the United States-led strikes in Afghanistan.

Protesters from the Coalition Against War and Racism, People for Nuclear Disarmament and other groups say they do not believe the strikes should be supported, as they are an act of collective punishment against the Afghani people.

Coalition spokesman Chris Latham says he believes more Australians will come to support this view as the conflict widens.

"Even in the United States there's been a positive response of people coming out against the war, there's been a number of big protests, there are a lot of people who are questioning what's being said in the media and are very receptive to what we're saying."


Security funding

The Federal Government has rejected calls for it to contribute to the cost of guarding churches and mosques in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Muslim leaders say they need financial help because two mosques, in Adelaide and Brisbane, have been destroyed by fire since the attacks.

There have also been at least eight reported attacks in Sydney since September 11, including a fire over the weekend at a church in the western suburb of Bass Hill.

The Minister for Multicultural affairs, Philip Ruddock, says while policing is primarily a state government responsibility, the Commonwealth already provides security resources through the Australian Protective Services and the Federal Police.

"The way in which those authorities deal with these issues is to make a risk assessment on the basis of evidence as to where the resources ought to be most appropriately applied," he said.

"But the broader question as to whether or not you then engage private services and then say well send a bill to the Commonwealth, I'm simply saying I think that would be an inappropriate way to deal with these issues."


Nigerian curfew

A night-time curfew has been imposed on the Nigerian city of Kano after a day of violent clashes between Muslims and Christians.

Officials are playing down the number of deaths, but eyewitnesses speak of at least 12 people killed.

The BBC reports groups of Muslim and Christian youths began setting fire to cars and buildings.

The clashes spread rapidly to many parts of the city, particularly those with large non-Muslim populations and security forces moved in with tear gas and live rounds.

The trigger for the violence appears to have been a peaceful demonstration on Friday by Muslims protesting at American military strikes on Afghanistan.

This boiled over into a battle between armed youths from the city's Muslim and Christian communities.

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