Qaeda issues new video message praising al-Libi


Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri has issued a new video message praising the slain commander in Afghanistan, the Intel Center, a US group that monitors militant messages, said on Wednesday.
The nine minute, 59 seconds-long tape, entitled “An Elegy to the Martyred Commander Abu Laith al-Libi,” was issued by al-Sahab, the organization's media branch.
The video has English subtitles, Intel Center said. It's authenticity could not be immediately verified.
Al-Libi is believed to have been killed by a missile from a US Predator drone that struck his safe house in Pakistan in late January.
He was viewed as a top al-Qaeda strategist in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Al-Zawahri described Al-Libi as a “knight” of al-Qaeda's holy war.
He was “a mountain of Jihad and a lion,” al-Zawahri said.
“Every time a martyr falls, another martyr grabs the banner from him, and every time a chief goes down in blood, another chief completes the march after him,” al-Qaeda's deputy chief said.
Pakistani intelligence described him as the operational commander of al-Qaeda in the border region and one of the most high-profile figures after its leader, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy al-Zawahri.
The video released on Wednesday was posted on a web site that usually releases al-Qaeda messages.
The site also displayed a banner advertising an upcoming “interview” of al-Zawahri by al-Sahab, with a picture of him in a white traditional Arab robe and white turban, seated before a bookshelf.
Such advertisements are usually posted up to 72 hours before the message is released.
The message released on Wednesday was the first tape or video issued by al-Zawahri this year. He issued 15 in 2007.-[