Al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri has claimed the US has been defeated in Iraq following President George W. Bush's statement this week that Washington plans to reduce troop levels later this year.
"Bush, you must confess that you have been defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan and you will be too in Palestine soon," he said in a video broadcast today by Al Jazeera television.
Al Jazeera said the video, which had English subtitles, carried the date of the Muslim lunar month which ended in December.
"I congratulate the Muslims on Islam's victory in Iraq. I said more than a year ago that the Americans departure from Iraq is only a matter of time," said the bespectacled Zawahri, who wore a white turban and sat next to an assault rifle.
Mr Bush, who has refused to set a timetable for any withdrawal, said on Wednesday reducing US troops in Iraq was possible in 2006.
However, he said any cuts would be based on the situation on the ground and decisions by military commanders, not on a political timetable imposed by Washington.
The satellite television station aired a brief portion of the tape of Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, and said other excerpts would be broadcast later today.
Bin Laden and Zawahri have eluded capture since US-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the United States by al Qaeda.
Critics of Bush have demanded a quick withdrawal from Iraq, where about 2,200 American military personnel have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion, and say the president needs a clear exit strategy.