Al Qaeda Figure Calls For Attacks On Britain

 A prominent leader of al Qaeda called for attacks in Western countries particularly Britain in retaliation for Israel's offensive in Gaza, arguing that London was behind the creation of the Jewish state.

"It's high time that this criminal country, I mean Britain, paid the price of its historic crime," Abu Yahya al-Libi said in a video posted on an Islamist website.

"There is no child who dies in Palestine ... without this being the outcome of the (country) that handed Palestine to the Jews ... Britain."

Libi, whose group was behind deadly attacks in Britain in 2005, is one of the top leaders of al Qaeda believed to be hiding in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Libi told British people to expect reprisals for the Israeli "annihilation camapaign" in Gaza.

"We are not fooled by the policies of courtesy. A wolf is a wolf even dressed as lamb," he said in an apparanet reference to demonstrations in Western countries calling for an end to the three-week Israeli offensive.

In the 31-minute video, Libi also repeated calls for attacks on other Western countries including the United States.

"Make them taste the bitterness of war and the tragedies of homelessness and the misery of horror," he said in a call to militant fighters. "They should not be secure while our people (Palestinians) are scared.

"O, mujahideen (holy strugglers) everywhere rise like an angered lion ... do what you can to make the infidel capitals of the West and America and the Arab Tyrants taste what our brothers and weak folks in Palestine have been tasting."

Libi praised a three-day rampage in Mumbai, India in November in which 183 people were killed by suspected Islamists who he called "heroes" and urged similar acts of retaliation.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden earlier this month called on Muslims to rise in a holy struggle against the Israeli offensive in Gaza and accused Arab leaders of collusion with Israel.