Al-Qaeda in Yemen urges jihad against Jews and Christians

Published on Monday 8 February 2010 21:40

THE Yemen-based wing of al-Qaeda has called on Muslims in the Arabian peninsula to wage jihad, or holy war, against Christians and Jews in the region.

"The Christians, the Jews and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you … you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad," the wing's deputy leader, Saeed al-Shehri, a former Saudi inmate of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, said in an audiotape posted on a website often used by Islamist groups.

Shehri was one of 30 al-Qaeda members that Yemen authorities claimed to have killed in an air strike in December, but this was later denied by the global militant network.

"We advise you, our people in the peninsula, to prepare and carry your weapons and to defend your religion and yourselves and join your mujahideen brothers," he said.

Shehri said the Yemen-based wing's failed bomb attack on a United States-bound plane in December had been carried out in co-ordination with the network's leader, Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack in January, weeks after the al-Qaeda in Yemen first said it was behind the operation.

Shehri said US forces had killed Yemeni women and children with what he termed "espionage planes", an apparent reference to unmanned drones.

Yemen has said it would not allow direct foreign military intervention in its fight against al-Qaeda, which could play into the hands of the militants.

Shehri also addressed his call for jihad to a number of Yemeni tribes, including Shiite rebels.