Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for Iraqi insurgents'
unity in a new audiotape aired by al-Jazeera television on
Monday.
"The interest of the Islamic nation surpasses that of a group,"
said a speaker presumably to be the leader of al-Qaida.
Calling on Iraqi insurgent factions to avoid divisions, Bin
Laden said in the tape that insurgents should admit their
mistakes.
"Everybody can make a mistake, but the best of them are those
who admit their mistakes," said the speaker, adding that he advises
"himself, Muslims in general and brothers in al-Qaida everywhere"
not to be extreme.
Bin Laden also warned that duties to unite have not been
fulfilled, calling for actions "under a single banner to champion
righteousness."
The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately confirmed,
but the voice resembled that of bin Laden in previous messages.
However, al-Jazeera did not say how it obtained the tape.
The tape of bin Laden is the latest one since September 20, when
the leader of al-Qaida network called for jihad, or holy war,
against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf over his
administration's support for the US.
(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2007)
