Zawahiri says West weakened by nine years of fighting

Nine years of fighting jihadists has weakened Western forces, Al-Qaeda's number two said in an audio clip four days after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a US monitoring group said on Wednesday.

"The forces of jihad... have emerged victorious and the forces of the Crusader invasion have emerged weakened by their wounds and exhausted by the haemorrhage of human and financial losses," said Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to a transcript of the message provided by IntelCenter monitoring service.

Zawahiri did not directly refer to the September 11, 2001 attack that killed almost 3,000 people but said in the message released after Saturday's anniversary of 9/11 that attacks had taken place "even on the Westerners' own soil."

US troops invaded Afghanistan after the attacks on the United States to oust the Taliban, which Washington accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda.

"Nine years after the beginning of the Crusade against Afghanistan and then Iraq, here is the Crusade reeling after being weakened by the blows of your devoted sons, the mujahedeen," Zawahiri said, according to IntelCenter.

Western forces are "searching breathlessly for a way out," he said.

Today, 150,000 US and NATO troops are fighting in Afghanistan to quell an intensifying insurgency, with momentum widely seen to have moved in the

Taliban's favour as their footprint spreads.

In the message, Zawahiri offered condolences to Muslims in Pakistan over devastating floods that have left 10 million people without shelter nationwide, according to UN figures.

"I send my condolences to the Muslim Ummah (nation) in Pakistan over the damage they have suffered as a result of the recent floods," Zawahiri said.

But he also accused the Pakistani government of corruption.

"I would like to remind our people in Pakistan that the glaring governmental failure to relieve them is the result of their keeping silent about the deteriorating conditions and corrupt state of affairs in Pakistan."

Zawahiri also slammed leaders including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas as being corrupt and in league with the West.

The heading on the transcript indicates the message was recorded during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan which ended last week, but IntelCenter said it was only released on Tuesday.

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