E-Paper
Zawahiri is Afghanistan's enemy: Karzai
The Afghanistan President said that the Al-Qaeda number two must be brought to justice for the all the suffering he had caused.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday that Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri was his country's enemy and must be brought to justice for the all the suffering he had caused.
"Zawahiri is one of those people that we're looking for in Afghanistan to capture," Karzai told reporters when asked about a video released on the Internet in which the militant calls on Afghans to fight foreign forces.
"He's first the enemy of Afghanistan, then the enemy of the rest of the world... first he killed Afghans for years then he went to America and destroyed the twin towers," the president said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"So whether America wants him or not... we in Afghanistan want him arrested and put before justice," he said, adding Zawahiri was "one of those individuals who has brought massive suffering to the Afghan people."
Zawahiri, believed to be hiding out in remote areas of Pakistan or Afghanistan, said in the new video that Afghans must fight the "invaders" -- a reference to the thousands of American and other foreign troops here.
"I urge the Muslims of Kabul in particular and across Afghanistan in general to fight the invaders... to join forces with the Mujahedeen to chase out the invaders and liberate Afghanistan," he said.
Zawahiri was said to be speaking the day after rioting on May 29 in the Afghan capital Kabul following a traffic accident that left around 20 people dead and scores injured.
The violence erupted after a heavy US military truck lost control and ploughed into several vehicles at the northern entrance to the city during rush hour.
Zawahiri said in the video, which lasted less than four minutes, that the violence was "new evidence of the crimes perpetrated by American forces against the Afghan people."
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has said that Zawahiri escaped a US air strike in January in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan. Several civilians and five militants also died.
