Al-Qaida 'backing rebels in Syria'
Before he was killed in a US drone strike last week, al Qaida’s second-in-command urged Arabs to take up arms to assist Syrian rebels in their uprising against President Bashar Assad.
The call came in a nearly 15-minute-long video message by Abu Yahya al-Libi.
It was released yesterday, but a jihadist website said it was produced in November. Al-Libi was killed last week in North Waziristan, Pakistan.
According to the Site monitoring group, Al-Libi called on Syrians to abandon any “illusions of peacefulness” and fight Mr Assad and what he called US conspiracies against the revolution.
Al Qaida has tried to capitalise on the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region.
The Syrian revolt, which activists say has claimed more than 13,000 lives, is a popular topic on jihadist online forums.
Syria has accused the US of ``interference'' after Washington expressed concern that the regime could carry out more mass killings.
Syria’s foreign ministry said the remarks by a US state department spokeswoman warning that Assad’s forces could commit massacres this week in Haffa coincided with stepped-up attacks by rebels in the area.
Meanwhile, a Syrian rights group said 64 people died in fighting yesterday, mostly in mortar attacks in Aleppo and Deir al-Zour.
