| Or words to that effect... |
An al Qaeda leader called on the Islamist Hamas group to fight Israel with "bombs and fire" in an Internet video posted on Sunday, days after militants launched rockets into southern Israel breaking a ceasefire."Where is revenge, where are the bombs, where is the fire?" Abu Yahya al-Libi asked members of the military wing of Hamas in a video posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups. "Your loyalty to the blood of your predecessors, those loyal men, can only be through strict commitment to path of jihad ... and rejecting any other way," he said in the undated video.Al Qaeda, which spearheads a militant campaign against the United States and its allies, views the Sunni Muslim Hamas as a moderate group that has compromised the rights of Palestinians for political gains. In March, al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, accused Hamas of serving U.S. interests through a power-sharing agreement with the secular Fatah group.
Libi, who is believed to have escaped from a U.S. jail in Afghanistan in 2005, said it was the duty of al Qaeda to give advice to Hamas. Libi scolded Hamas leaders for embracing democracy and establishing ties with "infidel" Russia and Shi'ite Iran. Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in Jan. 2006. "Nationalism and Palestinian unity became the ground of your relations ... tarnishing your group," he said. "Those listening to your statements can no longer differentiate between you and secular groups."Libi also criticised Hamas leaders for what he described as a policy of "begging" and for visiting Russia and Iran to seek support in the face of a Western blockade against the Hamas-led Palestinian government for refusing to recognise Israel.