Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
announced in a video message posted on jihadist forums on Thursday.
"I will break the good news to our Islamic nation, which will... annoy the crusaders, and it is that the Shebab movement in Somalia has joined al-Qaeda," Zawahiri said.
In the first part of the video, Shebab's leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, addressed Zawahiri, saying: "We will move along with you as faithful soldiers."
"In the name of my mujahideen brothers, leaders and soldiers... I pledge obedience," Zubair said.
"Lead us on the road of jihad and martyrdom, in the footsteps that our martyr the late Osama bin Laden
... who doesn't live anywhere anymore...
had drawn for us," he added, referring to al-Qaeda's former leader who was killed last year in a covert U.S. raid on his hide-out in Pakistain.
The Shebab group proclaimed its allegiance to bin Laden in a video documentary distributed in 2009.
The hardline Somali Islamists are fighting to overthrow a fragile western-backed transitional government in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.