Don't back India on Kashmir,Al-Qaeda tells U.S.

LONDON, OCT. 14. For the first time Osama Bin laden's Al-Qaeda network has brought the Kashmir issue into its current conflict with the U.S. and its allies by demanding that they should stop supporting India on the issue.In a videotaped statement telecast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, the spokesperson, Mr. Sulaiman AbuGhaith, threatened the U.S. and U.K. with more suicide attacksand cautioned Muslims against travelling by air and staying inhigh-rise buildings.

``These storms (of planes) will not calm until you retreat in defeat in Afghanistan, stop your assistance to the Jews in Palestine...leave the Arabian peninsula and stop your support to the Hindus against the Muslims in Kashmir,'' he said.The U.K. and the U.S. termed the latest statement of the Al-Qaeda as ``mere propaganda''.

The spokesperson of the U.K. Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, said the threats were irrefutable confirmation that Osama and his network had masterminded the September 11 attacks. ``We totally condemn this latest statement,'' he said. Mr. Ghaith specifically threatened the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, his father, Mr. George Bush Sr., the former President, Mr. Bill Clinton, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon.

``They are not going to escape punishment.''Mr. Ghaith criticised the U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, for doubting a claim he made last Tuesday that thousands of young Muslims were looking forward to death in a ``storm of planes that will destroy the U.S.''

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