All Headline News : Al-Qaida's No. 2 Commander Criticizes Bush, Pope

Al-Qaida's No. 2 Commander Criticizes Bush, Pope

by Som Patidar | All Headline News Staff Writer | September 30, 2006

Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - In an 18-minute web video released on Friday, al-Qaida's no. 2 commander Ayman al-Zawahiri criticized US president George W. Bush as calling him a "liar" who is losing his war against Al-Qaeda.

"Bush, oh failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan?" he said in video.

He called President George W. Bush a "murderer and spiller of Muslim blood." He also called both Bush and Pope Benedict XVI a "charlatan."

He attacked Benedict XVI over his remarks on Islam and called upon him to convert to Islam.

In a previous web-video posted to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, Zawahiri warned that the Gulf and Israel would be the next targets of Al-Qaida.