DUBAI: Al Qaeda would spare no effort to free Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani imprisoned in the US, as well as the hunger striking inmates at Guantanamo Bay, the group leader Ayman al-Zawahri said.
“The (hunger) strike by our brothers at Guantanamo unmasks the true ugly face of (the United States of) America,” Zawahri said in an audio recording posted on an Islamist website on Wednesday.
“We will spare no effort to free all our prisoners, on top of whom are Omar Abdul Rahman, Aafia Siddiqui, Khaled Sheikh Muhammed and every oppressed Muslim everywhere…,” he added.
Some 166 men, most of whom were rounded up in counter-terrorism operations since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, are currently being held at a US military base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Many have been on hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention, with some being force-fed.
The Al Qaeda leader also denounced Washington’s use of drone strikes targeting Islamists, saying it was a sign of the defeat of US campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.
“These spying planes will not protect you from defeat, but rather are a sign of your failure and the repeated failure of your government,” Zawahri said, addressing US President Barack Obama.
