US: Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, called US president George Bush a "lying failure" for saying progress had been made in the war on terrorism, according to a video posted on the internet yesterday.
"Bush you are a lying failure and a charlatan. It has been 3½ years [ since the arrests] . . . What happened to us? We have gained more strength and we are more insistent on martyrdom," the Egyptian militant leader said.
Zawahri was referring to the arrest of al-Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the suspected mastermind of the September 11th attacks on the US.
"Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.
Zawahri also called Pope Benedict a charlatan because of his remarks on Islam: "This charlatan accused Islam of being incompatible with rationality while forgetting that his own Christianity is unacceptable to a sensible mind."
In a speech to a university in his native Germany on September 12th, the pope quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad by 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Muhammad brought was evil and inhuman. The pope said there was no room for violence in a religion based on reason.
Zawahri also urged Muslims in the same video to launch a holy war against proposed UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.
"O Muslim nation, come to defend your lands from crusaders masked as UN [ troops]. Nothing will protect you except popular jihad," Zawahri said.
q Meanwhile, in Iraq gunmen killed a brother-in-law of the new judge trying Saddam Hussein and badly wounded the man's wife and son, in what the Iraqi government said was a direct attack on the court by Saddam's followers.
The government spokesman said Judge Muhammad al-Ureybi's 10-year-old nephew and his sister were in a critical condition after the family was sprayed with bullets on Thursday evening.
It was at least the fourth killing closely connected to the US-sponsored court - it followed the murder of three defence lawyers - and will raise new questions about the court's ability to conduct fair trials in a nation on the verge of sectarian civil war.
"This was purposely and intentionally from groups which are connected to Saddam," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, adding that he expected Mr Ureybi to continue presiding over the genocide trial which he took over last week.