Voice Message Attributed to Bin Laden Praises Zarqawi

CAIRO â€”  An Internet voice message attributed to Osama bin Laden defended attacks by Abu Musab Zarqawi against civilians in Iraq and said the slain leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq acted under orders to kill anyone who backed American forces.

The message paid tribute to Zarqawi in a 19-minute audio file posted today on an Islamic militant website. The voice resembling Bin Laden’s is accompanied by video that shows an old photo of him next to old video images of Zarqawi.

The speaker effusively praises the Jordanian-born militant, often in rhyming couplets. His voice sounds breathy and fatigued at times.

It was the fourth message purportedly put out this year by Bin Laden. All have featured his voice in audiotapes. New video images of him have not appeared since October 2004.

The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately confirmed.

It bore the logo of Al Sahab, the Al Qaeda production branch that releases all its messages, and was posted on an Islamic Web forum where militants often post messages. Typically, the CIA does a technical analysis to determine whether the speaker is who the tape claims, and the National Counterterrorism Center analyzes the message’s contents.

Zarqawi was killed in a June 7 airstrike northeast of Baghdad by U.S. warplanes.

In the tape, the voice attributed to Bin Laden addressed “those who accuse Abu Musab of killing certain sectors of the Iraqi people,� referring to the campaign of suicide bombings by Zarqawi’s followers.

It says that “those who ... stood to fight on the side of the crusaders against the Muslims, then he should kill them whoever they are, regardless of their sect or tribe.�

It claims that Zarqawi was instructed not to attack anyone who remained neutral. Large numbers of civilians have been killed, however.

Zarqawi’s strategy of attacking Shiite civilians in an attempt to spark a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq raised criticism even among some fellow Islamic extremists.

Any tension between Zarqawi and Al Qaeda’s command appeared to have faded this year; Bin Laden deputy Ayman Zawahiri issued three videotapes in which he effusively praised Zarqawi.

The Internet message said that President Bush should return Zarqawi’s body to his family and that Jordan’s King Abdullah II should allow the militant’s family to bury him.

The Jordanian government has said it will never allow Zarqawi to be buried in his homeland because of a November triple suicide bombing his followers carried out in Amman hotels, killing 60 people.