Bin Laden: 'Fire and Iron' Can Free Gaza

Osama bin Laden calls followers to arms to stop the blockade on Gaza in a tape broadcast today on Al-Jazeera. Israel did not take the Palestinian territory "by negotiations and dialogue but with fire and iron. And this is the way to get it back," he said, adding that fighting US forces in Iraq was the main route to "liberating Palestine."

Bin Laden's remarks follow his accusations against the Vatican and the EU made public in a recording broadcast on an Islamist website yesterday, Reuters reports. In it, bin Laden threatens to discipline the EU for Denmark's publication of anti-Islamic cartoons, and he accuses the pope of conducting a "new crusade" against Muslims. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)