Zawahiri calls "to cleanse" the Maghreb of "sons of Spain"
El Periódico Mediterráneo
September 21, 2007
The number two of Al Qaeda says that Islam must recover Al Andalus
Spain has turned into a priority enemy for number two of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri. Yesterday, in a video broadcasted over the internet, Zawahiri made a call to the Maghreb branch of Al Qaeda "to cleanse the Maghreb of sons of France and Spain", in a sentence that the Spanish security forces have interpreted as a threat to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Besides, Zawahiri exhorted the extremists from the Maghreb to reconquer Al Andalus --in a referrence to Spain-- as he believes that it is a duty to recover any territory that was Islamic in the past.
Yesterday was not the first time that Zawahiri threatens Spain. Since december, he has been making referrence to Ceuta and Melilla, and to Al Andalus, in numerous messages. "The recovering of Al Andalus is a duty to the Islamic community in general, and to you [the Maghrebis] in particular", he claimed.
A coalition of groups
Zawahiri's words were directed to the groups of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, the alliance of terrorist groups led by the Algerians of the
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat of which are also a part
Morocco's Islamic Combatant Group (the author of the 11-M massacre in Madrid) and Libyan and Tunecian extremists. "It is a very bad news that Zawahiri threatens us directly", said a Spanish agent of the counter-terrorist service. He continued by saying that "for the extremists world-wide, the messages of Zawahiri are basics, where they study every single sentence searching for hidden meanings".
Nonetheless, the threats against Spain are not the only message that Zawahiri launched in the video. The Islamist leader called Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf a "bulldog under the crucifix of Bush". An extremist web also broadcasted yesterday a message of Bin Laden where the leader of Al Qaeda declared the Jihad against Musharraf.