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Al-Qaeda in Iraq pledges support for al-Zawahri
BAGHDAD— Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq reaffirmed its support Monday for the terror network’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, a week after US commandos killed Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda has not yet announced a successor and there is some uncertainty about whether al-Zawahri will indeed take over for bin Laden.

In a statement posted on an insurgent website Monday, the Islamic State of Iraq also taunted President Barack Obama as “the rat in the black house” and said he should remain fearful of bin Laden’s promise to threaten the United States.

“The martyrdom of the sheik (bin Laden) will increase the determination and steadfastness among his brotherly mujahideen,” read the statement. “To our brothers in al-Qaida, first among them sheik Ayman al-Zawahri and his brothers in the leadership of the organization, may God reward you and grant you patience for this loss.”

The statement amounts to an official letter of condolence for bin Laden, who was killed in a US strike last week on his compound in northern Pakistan. It was signed by Abu Bakr al-Husseini al-Baghdadi, a pseudonym for the anonymous new leader of al-Qaida’s front group in Iraq.
Can't quite allow himself to be named, can he...
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri was long bin Laden’s deputy, but has clashed in the past with al-Qaida’s front group in Iraq. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahri urged followers to focus attacks against US and Israeli interests, and sharply condemned the network’s Iraqi wing for targeting Shiite Muslims during the years that Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war.

The new statement did not call for specific attacks on the US but said Obama should be mindful of bin Laden’s 19 operatives who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

“And now the same fear and terror after his death will hurt you as his legacy, and will be a hard burden on you, spoiling your lives and threatening your security and consuming your economy,” the statement said. “It is the right of Osama bin Laden’s men to fulfill his oath.”

Al-Qaida in Iraq has by and large confined its attacks to its home country. In a second statement Monday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber who last week killed 20 police officers in the Iraqi town of Hillah by ramming the explosives-packed vehicle he was driving into a barricaded security compound.
Posted by: Steve White 2011-05-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=322263