DUBAI, Aug 4: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri warned Britain and the United States of more horror and destruction in a new videotape shown on Al-Jazeera television on Thursday. Zawahiri said the two Western allies risked losing thousands of lives if they did not pull out of Iraq and end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

“These policies (of British Prime Minister Tony Blair) will bring them more destruction after the explosions of London,” Zawahiri said. His statement came as thousands of police mounted a huge operation to protect the British capital, exactly four weeks after suicide bombers brought carnage to the city, killing 52 people.

Zawahiri, who appeared in the footage to be sitting outdoors with an assault rifle at his side, warned the United States that it risked horrors worse than those of the Vietnam war if it persisted with its policies.

“The Americans... will see horror that would make them forget the horror they saw in Vietnam,” he said. Dressed in a white robe and a black turban from which a long scarf descended onto his shoulder, in the style of traditional Muslim leaders, Zawahiri pointed his figure at the lens repeatedly as he piled threat on threat.

“You people of the crusader alliance, we proposed to you to at least refrain from harming Muslims. The lion of Islam, Osama bin Laden, also offered you a truce to leave the lands of Islam,” he said.

“Did he (bin Laden) not tell you that you will not know security before we live it in Palestine and before you withdraw (your) infidel troops?” he asked.

“But you ran rivers of blood in our countries, so we let loose volcanoes of wrath in yours.

“The truth that (President George W.) Bush... hides from you is that there is no exit from Iraq except through immediate withdrawal. Any delay will mean only more dead and wounded.

“If you do not leave today, you will inevitably leave tomorrow, but only after (you suffer losses) of tens of thousands of dead and many more injured.”

He accused the Egyptian security services of “defending US and Israeli interests” after a trio of bombings which killed at least 67 people, including 16 foreigners, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23.

He slammed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a “bribe-taker”, and accused Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas of being a “heathen who has sold out his religion and goes from failure to failure.”—AFP