Al-Qaida's No. 2 defends civilian deaths

CAIRO, April 3 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida's second in command, believed hiding in Pakistan, says the far-flung terrorist network does not kill innocent people on purpose.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, in answer to questions in an interview released by a radical Islamist Web site, said further that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is "healthy and well," CNN reported.

Questions targeted his views about Egypt, Iraq and Hamas, and referred to attacks by al-Qaida and other groups that killed scores of civilians in Muslim countries.

Al-Zawahiri said innocents killed in attacks by al-Qaida or others died of "unintentional error" or because they were used as "human shields" by "the enemy."

He defended a December attack in Algeria where 60 people were reported killed at a hospital. He said one of the targets was a U.N. building and the "United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims."