Zawahiri taunts U.S. in new video

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared on a video tape taunting the US about an air strike in Pakistan which failed to kill him. On the tape, aired by Al Jazeera TV, he called the US president a "butcher" and asked: "Do you want to know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses."


Monday's video was his first appearance since a US air strike that targeted him on 13 January in Pakistan.Al-Zawahiri said he had survived the raid which he said killed "innocents".

"US airplanes ... launched a raid on a village in near Peshawar after Eid al-Adha in which 18 Muslim men, women and children were killed in what they call the war against terror," al-Zawahiri said."They said this was intended to kill myself and four brothers but now the whole world has discovered their lies ..."."The whole world has discovered the magnitude of the United States' lies and failure and how barbaric it is in its fight against Islam and Muslims," he said.

"My second message is to the American people, who are drowning in illusions. I tell you that Bush and his gang are shedding your blood and wasting your money in frustrated adventures," he said, speaking in a forceful and angry voice

He said that neither President George Bush nor "all the powers on earth" could bring his death "one second closer".