DUBAI, Jan 5: Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Muslim fighters to head to Somalia and deploy guerilla tactics used in Iraq following the rout of the Islamic courts, in an audio message released on Friday.

“I call on all Muslims to respond to the call for Jihad (holy war) in Somalia,” Osama bin Laden’s deputy said in the message posted on a website normally used by Al Qaeda.

“The real war will start with attacks against the Ethiopian forces of aggression,” said the recording, whose authenticity could not be verified.

Zawahiri called on Islamists to use suicide attacks, mines and ambushes against the government and also implicated the United States, which has backed Ethiopia’s right to intervene in Somalia and is helping track down the fleeing fundamentalists.

“Don’t be impressed by the force of America: you have defeated it in the past,” he said. “The mujahideen have broken its backbone in Afghanistan and Iraq.” —AFP