Al-Qaida number two hails Zarqawi as 'martyr'
In a video broadcast tonight, al-Qaida’s deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri hailed the slain terrorist leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a soldier, an Islamic cleric and a prince of martyrs.
Al-Zawahri delivered the tribute in a new video aired on the Qatari-based TV channel Al-Jazeera.
The video clip showed al-Zawahri, wearing a white robe and black turban, with a picture of a smiling al-Zarqawi over his left shoulder.
The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, al-Zarqawi was killed on June 7 in a US airstrike on a house near Baqouba where he was meeting with colleagues.
In the tape, al-Zawahri said al-Zarqawi was “a soldier, a hero, an imam (Islamic cleric) and the prince of martyrs".
Al-Zawahri, who is believed to be hiding in the mountains on the Pakistani-Afghan border, lashed out at the United States, telling Americans: “You are not facing individuals but the whole of the Muslim nation.”
