Kuwait City, Aug 03: A new audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's top deputy warns the United States that it will pay dearly if it harms detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and urges Muslims everywhere to avenge the prisoners from their "infidel" captors.
Ayman al-Zawahri, a top official in bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network, said the threat was a response to Washington's announcement that it will start putting the detainees on military trials that could result in death sentences.
"I swear by the Almighty God .... That crusader America will pay dearly for any harm done to any of the Muslim prisoners it is holding,'' al-Zawahri is heard saying in recording broadcast by the Arab satellite station al-Arabiya today.
It was not immediately possible to authenticate the tape. Al-Zawahri, whose whereabouts are still unknown, said he didn't expect America to be fair. "But we tell America one thing: what you have seen so far is nothing but the first skirmishes. The real battle hasn't started yet."
The voice in the tape urged the American people if they were ``keen on their future and the future of their generations ... To follow reason and logic before it is too late."



He called on Muslims everywhere avenge the detainees. ``America and its agents are torturing your prisoners, show them how you will avenge them,'' he said in Arabic.


Bureau Report