CAIRO — Al Qaeda's No. 2 has slammed France's push to ban the Islamic full-face veil and urged Muslim women in a new audio message on the Internet to defend their headdress in a holy war against the "secular Western crusade."

Ayman al-Zawahri says the drive by France and some other European nations is a discrimination against Muslim women.

In the 47-minute recording released on militant websites on Wednesday, al Qaeda's deputy leader also eulogized the terror network's reputed No. 3 official, who was killed with his family in a U.S. strike in Pakistan in May.

Al-Zawahri praises Mustafa al-Yazid's sacrifice and goes on to claim that although killed al Qaeda militants in Iraq outnumber U.S. soldiers 100-to-1, the U.S. will still withdraw from Iraq in defeat.