Al-Qaida linked to U.K. bombings

CAIRO, Egypt -- Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, claimed responsibility for the July 7 London bombings in a video aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera that included a farewell statement by a man identified as one of the four suicide attackers.\nIt was the first explicit claim of responsibility for the blasts by the terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden.\nAl-Zawahri, who is thought to be hiding along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border, threatened the West with "more catastrophes" in retaliation for the policies of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.\nThe Al-Jazeera newscaster who presented the al-Zawahri tape said it contained a "testament" by one of the suicide bombers who attacked the London transport system July 7, killing 56 people.\nSpeaking with a heavy Yorkshire accent, the bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, said he was inspired by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahri and the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.\n"Until you will stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight," said Khan, wearing a red-and-white checked keffiyeh and a dark jacket. "We are at war, and I am a soldier, and now you too will taste the reality of this situation."\nIn his tape, Al-Zawahri did not say outright his terror group carried out the bombings on the London transport system that killed 56 people, including the four bombers, but said they were a direct response to Britain's foreign policies and its rejection of a truce that al-Qaida offered Europe in April 2004.\nAfter the March 2004 train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid, Spain, bin Laden was reported to have offered European countries a three-month cease-fire to consider his demands to withdraw their troops from Muslim countries. Effectively, it meant European forces should leave Afghanistan and Iraq.\n"I talk to you today about the blessed London battle which came as a slap to the face of the tyrannical, crusader British arrogance," al-Zawahri said. "It's a sip from the glass that the Muslims have been drinking from."\n"This blessed battle has transferred -- like its glorious predecessors in New York, Washington and Madrid -- the battle to the enemies' land, after many centuries of the battle being on our (Muslim) land and after (Western) troops have occupied our land in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine."\nIn a clear bid to turn Britons against the government, al-Zawahri said: "Blair not only disregards the millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he does not care about you as he sends you to the inferno in Iraq and exposes you to death in your land because of his crusader war against Islam."\nAl-Zawahri appeared in black turban and white robes with an automatic weapon leaning against the wall beside him.\nIn his part of the tape, Khan said he had forsaken "everything for what we believe" and went on to accuse Western civilians of being directly responsible for the terror attacks that befall them.\n"Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate injustice against my people all over the world, and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters," Khan said.\nThe image of Khan, a 30-year-old Leeds resident who died in the bombing of the London Underground train near Edgware Road, resembled photos of him published after the deadly attacks.\nKhan was shown in the video with a trimmed beard and appeared to be sitting against a wall lined with an ornate carpet.\nTwo U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the message's sensitive nature, said any claim of responsibility does not necessarily indicate that al-Qaida planned or directed the attack.\nThe officials said al-Qaida would regard the London bombings as a victory whether they were directly involved in them or not.