WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A new audio message from al-Qaida's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urges all Muslims to go to Somalia to help Islamic extremists there.
"I call upon my brothers the Muslims everywhere to participate in jihad in Somalia," said Zawahiri in the message, which was posted on the Internet Thursday by al-Qaida's media arm, the as-Sahab Institute.
The Islamic Courts Union, a loose coalition of militias, some believed linked to al-Qaida, was routed last week from the Somali capital Mogadishu and other towns it controlled by the Ethiopian military, which backs the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government.
I call upon the lions ... in every land of Islam: set out and support your brothers in Somalia by souls, money, advice, and experience," said Zawahiri, according to a translation provided by the SITE Institute, a non-profit organization that tracks Islamic Web sites.
Zawahiri, echoing recent calls by some Islamic Courts leaders, sought to cast the situation in religious terms, calling the Ethiopian military "Crusader forces," and urging attacks on them. "Hurt the slaves of America," he said.
"The real battle will start by your campaigns against the Ethiopian forces," said Zawahiri, adding that "the gangs of believers will eat up, by rushing to jihad for the Sake of Allah, the invader Ethiopian Crusader army."
