Al-Qaida leader warns of attacks

Zawahiri: 'The truth that has been kept from you by Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld'

In a videotape shown on the Arabic al-Jazeera satellite channel, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned of further terrorist strikes unless Britain and the United States withdraw troops from Iraq.

The al-Qaida leader blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the bombings in London July 7, which killed 52 people, and the attempted July 21 attacks

"Blair has brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of that, God willing," said al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor who joined forces with bin Laden in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

"As to the nations of the crusader alliance, we have offered you a truce if you leave the land of Islam."

Al-Zawahiri added, "Hasn't Sheik Osama bin Laden told you that you will not dream of security before there is security in Palestine and before all the infidel armies withdraw from the land of Muhammad?"

"Our message is clear," the al-Qaida leader continued, "You will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers."

"As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," he said. "If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God's will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."