TIMELINE: Recent bin Laden messages
(Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden told Muslims to prepare for a long war against "infidels and their agents," on Thursday.
"We either live under the light of Islam or we die with dignity ... brace yourselves for a long war against the world's infidels and their agents," the militant leader said in an audio tape posted on an Islamist website, which had been partially aired on Wednesday.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri and their allies since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Following is a timeline of major statements attributed to bin Laden in the past two years.
September 7, 2007 - Bin Laden appears in his first videotape for nearly three years, to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. In a message to the American people, bin Laden says the United States is vulnerable despite its economic and military power.
November 29, 2007 - Bin Laden urges European countries in an audiotape to end their alliance with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
March 19, 2008 - In an audio recording, bin Laden threatens the European Union with grave punishment over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
March 20, 2008 - Bin Laden urges Muslims to keep up the struggle against U.S. forces in Iraq as a path to "liberating Palestine."
May 16, 2008 - Bin Laden, in an audiotape addressed to "Western peoples," calls for the fight against Israel to continue and says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West.
May 18, 2008 - Bin Laden urges Muslims to break the Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and fight Arab governments that deal with the Jewish state, in an audiotape posted on the Internet.
January 14, 2009 - Bin Laden, in an audiotape, calls for a new jihad over Gaza and says the global financial crisis has exposed waning U.S. influence in world affairs and will in turn weaken Israel.
March 14, 2009 - Bin Laden accuses moderate Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims, in an audio recording aired by Al Jazeera television.
June 3, 2009 - Bin Laden says in an audio message that Obama has planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred toward America" in the Muslim world and warned Americans to prepare for the consequences. Bin Laden said Obama was treading in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush.
June 4, 2009 - Bin Laden tells Muslims to prepare for a long war against "infidels and their agents."
