Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a brand new video on the twentieth anniversary of September 11, months after the assault sparked rumors that he was useless.
The Site Intelligence Group, which screens jihadist web sites, stated the video was launched on Saturday. In it, al-Zawahari stated that ‘Jerusalem won’t ever be Jewish’, and praised al-Qaeda’s assaults focusing on Russian troops in Syria in January.
The website stated that al-Zawahri additionally referred to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan after 20 years of battle. It added that his remarks don’t point out a latest recording, because the withdrawal settlement with the Taliban was signed in February 2020.
The website stated al-Zawahari made no point out of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul final month. But he referred to the January 1 assault, which focused Russian troops on the sting of the northern Syrian metropolis of Raqqa.
Rumors have been circulating since late 2020 that al-Zawahari had died of the illness. Since then, no video or proof of life has emerged until Saturday.
The website’s director Rita Katz tweeted, “He could still die, although if that were the case, it would have been sometime in January 2021 or later.”
Al-Zawahari’s speech was recorded in a 61-minute, 37-second video produced by the group’s As-Sahab Media Foundation.
In latest years, al-Qaeda has confronted competitors in jihadist circles from its rival, the Islamic State group. IS rose to prominence in 2014 by capturing massive areas of Iraq and Syria, declaring a ‘caliphate’ and increasing allies to a number of international locations all through the area.
The bodily ‘caliphate’ of IS was crushed in Iraq and Syria, though its militants are nonetheless lively and finishing up assaults. IS shadow chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by US particular forces in a raid in northwestern Syria in October 2019.
Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, turned the chief of al-Qaeda in 2011 following the assassination of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALs.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
