Ayman al-Zawahri

Dubai, Feb. 24 (Reuters): A top al Qaida leader warned US President George W. Bush in an audiotape broadcast today to prepare for more attacks on the US.

In the tape aired by Al Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri said: “Bush, strengthen your defences and your security measures for the Muslim nation which sent you the legion of New York and Washington has determined to send you legion after legion seeking death and paradise.”

Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, also appeared today to single out France in its league of enemies, accusing Paris of displaying “Crusader hatred” towards Islam by banning Muslim headscarves from state classrooms.

By turning on France in an audiotape broadcast on Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, Zawahri — identifiable by his voice and rhetorical style — went beyond now familiar tirades against the US, Britain, Gulf Arab states and other supporters of last year’s US-led invasion of Iraq.

“France is the country of freedom which defends freedom to show the body and to be immoral and depraved. In France you’re free to show yourself but not to dress modestly,” he said in reference to the headscarf ban newly approved by parliament.

“This is a new sign of the Crusader hatred which westerners harbour against Muslims while they boast of freedom, democracy and human rights,” said the voice on the tape.

In the Al Jazeera tape, Zawahri said Bush had lied in last month’s State of the Union address when he asserted that most of al Qaida had been crushed.

“Bush alleged that his troops have spread freedom in the world, that Iraq had achieved democracry thanks to his coalition forces, that his government has crushed more than two-thirds of al Qaida and that... Afghanistan is secure,” he said.

“The leader of the most powerful country on earth is not embarassed to say these dececptions and lies. It’s got to the stage that he can ridicule his listeners to this degree,” he said.