Qaeda's Zawahri says U.S. war on Iraq a failure

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio message to mark five years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that Washington's war had brought nothing but failure and defeat.

Zawahri mocked George W. Bush's decision to suspend troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer, saying the U.S. president was scared of admitting defeat and was trying to pass the "problem" on to his successor instead.

"What the American invasion of Iraq has reached, today, after five years, is ... failure and defeat," Zawahri said in the tape posted on a website used by Islamist groups.

"The American troops, if they leave will lose everything and if they stay will bleed to death. This is what Bush has chosen for his army and his people, who elected him twice."

Bush endorsed this month a recommendation by his commander in Iraq to complete the withdrawal in July of about 20,000 extra combat forces deployed last year, but then imposed a 45-day freeze on the remaining 140,000 troops to assess the security situation before considering more cuts.

"This is a stupid drama to cover up the failure in Iraq and for Bush to escape from the decision of withdrawing his forces, which would be considered an announcement of the defeat of the Crusader invasion of Iraq, and to pass the problem to the next president," Zawahri said.

The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified but the voice sounded like Zawahri.

AWAKENING COUNCILS

Zawahri also mocked U.S. hopes that the so-called Awakening Councils, security units created by Sunni Arab tribal groups to fight al Qaeda in Iraq, would restore stability to the country.

The units are credited with reducing violence but have grown increasingly impatient with politicians. Sunni insurgents have regrouped in some areas.

"Should these Awakenings not have speeded up the withdrawal of American forces or do they need someone to defend and protect them?" he said.

Zawahri warned that Iran sought to spread its control over Shi'ite-populated areas across the region to Lebanon, where it has an ally in Hezbollah.

He warned the United States against considering any agreement with Iran over the region.

"Iran's objectives are clear: the inclusion of southern Iraq and the east of the (Arabian) peninsula and spreading to join its followers in southern Lebanon," he said.

"If an understanding was reached with it on the basis of some or all of its objectives...this understanding would pour oil on the blazing fire and blow up the situation in a really explosive region."

Zawahri also mocked anti-U.S. Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, saying he was being used by Iranian intelligence.

The top two U.S. officials in Iraq accused Iran this month of fuelling recent fighting in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, where security forces have battled Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to Sadr.

"Sadr has become the world's laughing stock," he said. "In this way the Iranian intelligence has played with this naive boy who claims resistance against the occupation by handing in his weapons to them once and protesting against them another time."

(Editing by Giles Elgood)