- Ayman a'-Zawahi said in a video tape on January 6, 2006, that President Bush recognised his defeat in Iraq when he said that the number of US troops will be reduced soon. This is a strange line of thought but all the same it is true that the US is not winning the war in the way they thought they would. It is obviously that a big country like the USA -10 times the population of Iraq, between 30 to 60 times the gross national product by head- should have defeated Iraq a long time ago. As it is the insurgents are still very active, efficient and destructive and the mighty US cannot do anything but count its dead.
- On January 30, 2006, al-Jazeera television ran another videotape by Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy. In it Zawahri said that President Bush was a "failure" in the war on terror and he called him a "butcher" for killing 13 innocent Pakistanis in a recent air strike on a village at the border with Afghanistan. The bombing was aimed at Zawahri but obviously he was not there or he escaped. He also repeated that al Qaida would soon hit America again.
- Al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has called in a video message shown
on Arab TV network al-Jazeera on the Palestinian militant group Hamas on March
5, 2006, not to recognise past peace deals with Israel. Zawahiri also attacked
the West for insulting the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons published in newspapers.
- The Al Qaeda network in Iraq issued a statement on Monday June 12, 2006,
announcing a replacement for leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in
a US air strike. The religiously worded statement issued by the media authority
for the consultative council of Jihadists in Iraq said: "Al Qaida's shura
council agreed to having Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer assume the place of Sheikh
Abu Musab el-Zarqawi -god's mercy be upon him." The statement said that
Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer is an experienced Jihadist and that "we ask
of god's assistance to help him accomplish what Sheikh Abu Musab initiated."
- The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi marks the "beginning of the end"
of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the country's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie,
said on June 15, 2006. Dream on!
A new recording purportedly from al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden has been
posted on an Islamic website on June 29, 2006. He praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
the al-Qaida leader killed in Iraq three weeks ago, as the "lion of holy
war". The video, lasting 19 minutes, shows a still picture of Bin Laden,
and moving pictures of al-Zarqawi. The recording's authenticity has not been
verified, but if it were confirmed, it would be the fourth audio message Bin
Laden has released this year. However, no new video images of the al-Qaida
leader have appeared since October 2004.
- Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Shiite Muslims on July 1, 2006, that their areas would not be safe from retaliation if what he described as annihilation against Sunni Muslims continued, according to an Internet audiotape.
- The threat to the UK from al-Qaida is likely to have increased and the Iraq war has provided a boost to extremist groups, a committee of MPs said on June 1, 2006. Tackling this threat would become more difficult in the future. One reason was propaganda coming from Iraq, which is a crucial training ground for international terrorists.
- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, has been buried at
a secret location in the country we were told on July 2, 2006. Zarqawi's body
had been handed over by the US military and buried in accordance with Muslim
traditions.
- Saddam Hussein had no relationship with al Qaida, including Iraq-based guerrilla
Abu Musab al Zarqawi, despite claims by President George W. Bush and other
administration officials, a Senate report released on Friday September 8,
2006, said. The report, one of two newly declassified reports released by
the Senate Intelligence Committee, drew on a previously undisclosed October
2005 CIA assessment as Americans prepared to mark the fifth anniversary of
the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaida.
- US Vice-President Dick Cheney repeated assertions on Sunday September 10, 2006, on links between the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda despite a recent Senate intelligence committee concluded otherwise. In defending the decision to invade Iraq despite its lack of weapons of mass destruction, Mr Cheney said the fact that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former head of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a US air strike this year, was in Baghdad before the war was evidence that Iraq had links to al-Qaida.
- Sombre ceremonies have been held in the US on September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the devastating 11 September attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. People fell silent at New York's World Trade Centre site to mark the times the two planes hit and the towers fell. Over three hours, the names of the 2,749 killed there were read out. After meeting New York fire fighters, President George W Bush laid a wreath at the other crash sites - in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
- A UN report released on Wednesday September 27, 2006, said the Iraq war provided al Qaida with a training centre and recruits, reinforcing a U.S. intelligence study blaming the conflict for a surge in Islamic extremism. The report by terrorism experts working for the UN Security Council said al Qaida was playing a central role in the fighting in Iraq as well as inspiring a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, several hundred miles away.-
- On September 30, 2006, al-Qaida's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has called
US President George W Bush a "liar" who is losing his war against
the network. In a video published on the Internet, he called Mr Bush a "lying
failure" and said al-Qaida was stronger than ever. He also spoke about
Darfur and attacked Pope Benedict XVI for referring to a book accusing Mahommet
of bringing wars and destruction.
- The leader of an al-Qaida-backed group offered US forces safe withdrawal
from Iraq within a month on December 23, 2006, if they left their heavy weapons
behind, according to an audiotape posted on the Internet.
- On October 23, 2007, Osama bin Laden scolded his al-Qaida followers and other insurgents, saying they have been ``lax'' for failing to overcome fanatical tribal loyalties and unite in the fight against US troops. The message of his new audiotape reflected the growing disarray among Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgents and bin Laden's client group in the country, both of which are facing heavy US military pressure and an uprising among Sunni tribesmen.
- On December 30, 2007, the US government said that Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape suggests the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network fears losing the support of Sunni Arabs as Iraq takes steps toward a more unified government. Bin Laden, in a 56-minute tape, urged Muslims to oppose the US-backed government in Iraq and warned Iraqi tribal councils not to stand in the way of al-Qaida forces.
- A US-born al-Qaida member called on January 7, 2007, for a bombing campaign
in the Middle East to mark US President George W Bush's visit this week. Adam
Gadahn, who is wanted for treason by the FBI, called in an internet video
for Mr Bush to be met by "bombs and booby-trapped vehicles".
- The United States military in Iraq said on May 9, 2008, a man detained in Mosul is not the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. An earlier statement from the Iraqi defence ministry said that al-Masri had been captured. But an American military spokeswoman said it was not true but that confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name to the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader had been detained.
- On Tuesday May 13, 2008, the Bush administration has slashed its reward for the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq from $5 million to $100,000 because it feels he's lost effectiveness and is no longer worth such a steep price.
- On June 3, 2009, a message attributed to the deputy leader of al-Qaeda denounced
Barack Obama as a "criminal" on the eve of the US president's Middle
East trip. Ayman al-Zawahiri said Mr Obama's "bloody messages" would
not be concealed by "polished words". The US president is due to
make a major speech on relations with the Muslim world in Egypt later this
week.