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Cairo: In a new videotape on Monday, Al Qaida's deputy leader Ayman Al Zawahiri warned "traitors" in Iraq and called on Sunni Arab tribes to purge US allies.
Al Zawahiri's comments were aimed at undermining "awakening councils" or groups of US-backed Iraqi Sunni tribesmen fighting Al Qaida in Iraq.
In the 90-minute video, Al Zawahiri warned of the "presence of hypocrites and traitors among the ranks of the mujahedeen (holy warriors), working and fighting for Americans."
The mujahedeen "must throw out the bribe-taking collaborators from among their ranks, those who sold out their faith and fight under the banner of the cross," he said.
Al Zawahri said the Americans have failed in Iraq and will withdraw soon. "The American forces are defeated and looking for a way out," he said.
Al Zawahri also denounced Iran, Hezbollah, Egypt, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's regime is "staggering into [its] final days".
"Iran stabbed the Muslim nation in the back," Al Zawahri said, referring to Shiite Iran's help in overthrowing Afghanistan's Taliban in 2001.
He criticized Iran's Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, saying the group showed an "extremist nationalism" by being more concerned with liberating Lebanon than freeing Palestinians.
He also denounced Egypt, saying it had become a "base for the crusader campaign against the mujahedeen," and called Abbas as US tool for "selling Palestine".
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