By Xinhua,
Cairo : Al Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, in a new audiotape message posted on a website, has claimed that five years of US occupation of Iraq had brought only “failure and defeat”.
US President George W. Bush will pass on the “problem” to his successor, al-Zawahri said in his message that was released Thursday.
The militant leader said Bush’s decision to accept advice to postpone further troop withdrawals from Iraq until after July was just a cover-up for his failure.
Bush announced last week that he has adopted top US commander in Iraq David Petraeus’ proposal to suspend further US troop withdrawals from Iraq beyond July.
Bush said he made the decision after Petraeus requested additional time to assess whether the US military can maintain the recent security improvements with fewer troops on the ground.
The authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified.