Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has called on European countries to end their alliance with the United States and withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, theSITE intelligence group monitoring service said today.
"An intelligent man doesn't waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington, and it is a shameful thing for a person to be in a coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life and intentionally bombs villagers from the air," the US-based SITE quoted bin Laden as saying.
Attacks in London and Madrid would be understood by Europeans if they were to see what "your American ally and his helpers" did in Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda chief said in a new audio message released on jihadist Internet forums.
The audio message, posted today, was contained in a near-five minute video showing only a still image of Bin Laden, SITE said, noting that English-and German-language subtitled versions of the video were posted.
Bin Laden threatened that Al-Qaeda would retaliate "from the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed," the monitoring service added.
"If today Europe is suffering the travails of the economic crisis, and the heart of Europe is no longer number one in world exports, and America is reeling from the haemorrhage caused by the economic war, then how do think you will fare after America pulls out?" it quoted bin Laden as asking.
