New Tape: Al Qaeda No. 2 Wants 200,000-300,000 U.S. Dead in Iraq

May 5, 2007 — -- In a new video posted today on the Internet, al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, mocks the bill passed by Congress setting a timetable for the pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," Zawahri says in answer to a question posed to him an interviewer.

Continuing in the same tone, Zawahri says, "We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson."

Based on the references to the bill, the tape, produced by al Qaeda's propaganda arm, as-Sahab, appears to have been made after Congress passed the legislation last week but before President Bush vetoed it on Thursday.

According to Laura Mansfield, a counterterrorism analyst with Strategic Translations, an organization that monitors al Qaeda postings, the tape was posted on the Internet this morning and covers the usual range of Zawahri's topics including Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

There has been a flurry of audio and video releases featuring Zawahri, although no new communication from Osama bin Laden since mid-2006.