Al-Qaeda named its long time second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri to succeed its chief Osama bin Laden who was killed by the U.S forces in Pakistan. Through the statement it also vowed to continue its jihad under Zawahiri’s leadership against United States and Israel.

Zawahiri the 59-year-old surgeon who now is United State’s most wanted man has been hiding ever since the United States declared its war on terror after the 9/11 attacks. Zawahiri, was jailed for three years in Egypt for militancy and was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, and a 1997 massacre of tourists in Luxor. Facing a death sentence, he left Egypt in the mid-1980s initially for Saudi Arabia, but soon headed for Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar where the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was based, and then to Afghanistan, where he joined forces with bin Laden. The statement by the extremist group said that they would fight with the aid of God to call for the religion of truth and incite by carrying out jihad against the apostate invaders headed by crusader America and its servant Israel and whoever supports them. The statement also said that the fight would continue until all invading armies leave the land of Islam.

Al-Qaeda also announced its support for the uprisings of Muslim people against the corrupt and tyrant leaders in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya Yemen, Syria and Morocco. It urged those involved in the uprisings to continue their struggle until the fall of all corrupt regimes that the West has forced onto the countries. The extremist Sunni group made no mention of the Shiite-led uprising in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, crushed in mid-March by the ruling Western-allied Sunni minority which was backed by joint Gulf Arab forces. In the last part of the statement there was an assurance for every oppressed human in this world, who is the victim of Western and American crimes.

Al-Qaeda names Zawahiri to succeed Bin Laden

Report by Reuben