Al-Qaeda's Zawahiri and London Bomber praise attack on video

Ayman al-Zawahiri, top lieutenant to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, praised the July 7 attacks on London's transport system in a videotape that also featured a farewell message from one of the four suicide bombers.

“I talk to you today about the blessed London battle, which came as a slap in the face to the tyrannical Crusader British arrogance,” al-Zawahiri said in the tape aired late yesterday by the Doha, Qatar-based al-Jazeera Television. “It is a sip from the glass that Muslims have been drinking from.”

Muhammad Sadiq Khan, a 30-year-old British citizen from West Yorkshire identified by police as the eldest of the bombers, explained his motivation for taking part in the bombings in English. “I am a soldier and we are at war,” he said. “I and thousands like me have forsaken everything for what we believe,” reports Bloomberg.

According to the Independent, In the video, Khan said: "Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people and your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters."

Khan, who worked as a learning mentor to children at a primary school in Beeston, Leeds, said: "Until we feel security, you will be our target. Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight."

The video released by al-Jazeera, shows Ayman al-Zawahri, said to be Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, apparently confirming that al-Qa'ida was behind the attacks in the capital. The Egyptian claims the attacks were a "slap" to the policies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Speaking in Arabic, the Egyptian says the bombings are proof they have moved the battle to "the enemy's land."