(AFP) – Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden branded Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki a “traitorous apostate” in new video that threatens the Shiite Muslim majority in the violence-ravaged country. The 81-minute documentary-style video was made public on Thursday by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist websites.
In it, bin Laden talks of a succession of US-backed government in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 and taunts them for failing to end the US-led occupation of the country. His remarks were made in a documentary style video with English subtitles called “The Power of Truth” in which bin Laden appears in still photographs and video footage.
“We’ve seen (Iyad) Allawi’s government come and go, yet the occupier did not leave; and the (Ibrahim) Jaafari government as well, yet the occupier did not leave. “And there is the traitorous apostate Maliki government taking the same line as the Jaafari government because it is just another face of it.” The Al-Qaeda leader, a radical Sunni Muslim, makes a reference to Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslims, to which he is virulently opposed, and threatens them with violence.
“It is not possible for such a large number of southerners to participate with American and its allies in violating Fallujah, Ramadi, Baquba, Mosul, Samarra, Qaim and other cities and villages and then in exchange have their region enjoy safety from harm and reaction.” Those cities have predominantly Sunni Arab populations.