Zawahri urges Muslims to support al Qaeda in Iraq

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Muslims in an audio message posted on Tuesday to back the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq which he said still posed the biggest threat to U.S.-led forces.

"The Islamic State in Iraq ... remains to this day the main force confronting the crusaders and their collaborators and challenging Iranian greed," Zawahri said.

The authenticity of the tape, which ran to 2 hours and 36 minutes, could not immediately be verified but the voice sounded like Zawahri's. It was the second and final installment of his answers to questions compiled by Islamist Web sites.

Zawahri said in an audio message on Friday that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had met nothing but failure and defeat. In the first installment of his answers, Zawahri said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was in good health and vowed attacks on Jews inside and outside Israel.

Announced in October 2006, the Islamic State in Iraq is a coalition of militant Sunni Islamist groups including the Iraqi wing of al Qaeda. It is led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Zawahri dismissed U.S. suggestions that Baghdadi was a fictitious character used as a front for the Islamic State in Iraq. He said groups which wanted the creation of Islamic rule in Iraq should come together under the Islamic State.

Zawahri also said that U.S.-led forces were losing the battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, adding that the group was also influential in neighboring Pakistan and presented a challenge to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban following the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. Zawahri confirmed al Qaeda was behind the attacks.

The Egyptian physician repeated his calls for Muslims in Lebanon to fight United Nations forces in that country and to punish Denmark and Norway over the publication of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammad that many Muslims find insulting.

"Lebanon ... will have a pivotal role in the coming battles with the crusaders and the Jews," he said.

"What I ask from the jihadi generation in Lebanon is to prepare to reach Palestine and to expel the invading crusader troops that claim to be peacekeeping forces from Lebanon..."

Asked whether Japan was a target given its involvement in Iraq was humanitarian, Zawahri said anyone who cooperated in aggression against Muslims was a target.

Japan has about 210 air force personnel in Kuwait, from where they airlift supplies to the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. It withdrew 600 ground troops from southern Iraq in 2006 after a non-combat mission which lasted more than two years.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed; editing by Dominic Evans)