Click The Logo To Donate
Posted on 07/02/2004 9:39:55 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
DUBAI (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked group vowed to renew attacks on Europe and urged Muslims to flee once Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s three-month truce ends on July 15, two Arabic-language newspapers reported on Friday.
"To the European people ... you only have a few more days to accept bin Laden's truce or you will only have yourselves to blame," said the statement purported to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades which claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Spain which killed 191 people.
Al Qaeda leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, extended a truce to Europeans if they withdrew troops from Muslim nations. He said the offer not to attack Europe would last three months.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the new statement, parts of which were published by London-based newspapers Asharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat. The papers said the letter was dated July 1 but did not say how they obtained it.
"Muslims in the West should depart to Muslim states if they can," the letter said.
"Those who cannot should take precautions and live in Muslim areas, have enough food to last a month, find ways to protect themselves and their families, leave enough money in the house to last one month or longer and to pray a lot and put their fate in God's hands," it added.
Germany, which is maintaining a very high level of security in the face of a general threat from Islamic militant groups, reacted by saying it did not consider the threat particularly credible.
"This is a sinister organization which has already laid claim to many things, including power failures in America. That means that these statements should be taken with great caution and are probably not particularly credible," an Interior Ministry spokesman told a regular news conference.
TRUCE REJECTED
The statement said attacks would continue until the United States freed Muslim prisoners, ended its war on Islam and until "all Muslim land, including Jerusalem and Kashmir (news - web sites), is cleansed of the stain of Jews, Americans and Hindus."
Several European states had rejected the truce offer, which excluded the United States and Israel. The CIA (news - web sites) has said the voice on the tape was likely that of bin Laden, whose group carried out the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.
"I offer a truce to them (Europe) with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs," bin Laden said.
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which aligns itself to al Qaeda, is named after Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs, a bin Laden aide killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan (news - web sites) in 2001.
The group said those involved in "dialogue of civilizations" had little time to convince Europe to accept the truce.
"The race now is between you, time and European governments which refused to stop their attacks against Muslims. So do not blame us for what will happen, and we apologize to you in advance if you are among those killed."
The group also said it planned attacks in Yemen to "drag America into a third quagmire after Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan."
"We tell the brigade of Abu Ali al-Harthi: The leadership decided that Yemen will be the third quagmire for Americans."
Abu Ali al-Harthi, the leader of the Yemeni wing of al Qaeda, was killed in 2002 by a missile fired by a pilotless CIA drone aircraft at his car in the Arab state.
I think that huge terrorist attack in Europe is possible. They may even use WMD.
Have the French surrendered yet?
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1164198/posts
wpadnij tam na chwilke, napisalam kilka rzeczy.
The surrender monkeys are up against the wall.
Surrendering didn't work? I guess they could try to surrender again...
Osama bin Laden offered a truce? When? Where? Have we seen him since 2001? Is he even alive?
All we have heard from Ernst Osama Blofeld is a few scratchy audio recordings. Hardly conclusive proof.
I agree with Ole Sama on one thing. The Muslims should go back to Muslim lands.
I'm thinking Italy and Greece.
OBL is such a bully. He's sounding more and more like a school yard bully who shakes down little kids for milk money.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.