Osama bin Laden
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Group Al-Qaeda urged Mauritania attacks over Gaza
Terror group's North African wing urges attacks against Israeli, Western interests to 'purifying Mauritania from dirt of the Israeli flag that flies over its skies'
Al-Qaeda's North African wing has urged attacks against Israeli and Western interests in Mauritania, an Internet monitoring agency said, after the Arab state froze political links with Israel over its Gaza offensive.
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Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also called on Algerians to disobey a long-standing government ban on public demonstrations and stage strikes to protest Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Both Israel and Hamas announced ceasefires at the weekend, and Israeli forces began withdrawing from Gaza where over 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the three-week war. Ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians were also killed.
"Purifying Mauritania from the dirt of the Israeli flag that flies over its skies, expelling the Jews, and closing their embassies are a trust on our necks. So, we will strive as much as possible to achieve this or die in its pursuit," AQIM leader Abdelmalek Droukdel said in a video appeal to Mauritanians.
'Support Gazans with soul and money'
The video, dated Jan 13, was posted on Islamist Internet forums the next day and translated by SITE Intelligence Group.
Mauritania, Egypt and Jordan are the only three Arab states which maintain diplomatic links with Israel. Several thousand Mauritanians clashed with police during a protest just over a week ago against Israel's attack on Gaza.
The northwestern African country, along with its ally Qatar which has formal trade links with Israel, froze its economic and political relations with the Jewish state last Friday in protest over Gaza, but stopped short of severing diplomatic links.
"We urge you to blow up this evil relationship as support of your brothers in Gaza. We ask you to go to jihad and we urge you to rise to strike Western interests everywhere," said the AQIM leader, who uses the nom de guerre Abou Mossab Abdelouadoud.
AQIM also urged Algerians to defy a ban on public demonstrations under a state of emergency dating back to 1992 and stage strikes until the violence in Gaza ceased.
"So, my Muslim brothers in Algeria, I call upon you to go and support your brothers in Gaza with soul and money, and to launch from your mosques on the streets to continue your marches and condemnations," Droukdel said.
