Kabul, May 21: Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri praised two leaders of the group killed in Iraq, according to an audio recording aired by television on Thursday.
Zawahri is thought to be in hiding in mountainous territory close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Al Qaeda’s Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed in a joint operation by Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops April 9.
Zawahri praised both men for “reviving Jihad” in the country, comparing them to leaders in early Islam and denounced the Baghdad government and Western “Crusaders” for their killing. The television aired a brief excerpt of the recording.
The two al Qaeda leaders were found dead in a hole in the ground inside a house after it was surrounded and stormed in an operation which officials said was led by Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops.
The deaths could be a major setback to the stubborn insurgency at a time when Iraq is emerging from the sectarian slaughter unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but still struggling to end suicide bombings and other attacks.
—-IANS