Exactly 20 years after the devastating attacks of September 11th, the Al-Qaeda terrorist network has published a new video message from its leader Aiman al-Zawahiri. In the film, which was distributed on social media on Saturday, Al-Zawahiri calls on its supporters to fight the states in the West and their allies in the Middle East.
The video, which is around 60 minutes long, shows the first speech by the al-Qaeda chief since there were unconfirmed rumors about his death at the end of last year. Analysts see evidence in the new recording that Al-Zawahiri was still alive at least earlier this year, as he mentions an attack on the Russian military in northwest Syria on January 1.
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Mocking words
Al-Zawahiri also deals with the withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan. The USA left the country after 20 years of war “broken and beaten,” he explains. On the other hand, he does not say a word about the advance there of the militant Islamist Taliban, who are allied with al-Qaeda. Al-Zawahiri said the 9/11 attacks were “an injury” the United States would never have experienced.
He describes the rapprochement between several Arab states on Israel as “treason”. It is a “crusade” led by America: “And Israel is one of the most important tools of this crusade.” The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco had agreed with Israel last year to normalize their diplomatic relations.
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$ 25 million bounty exposed on Al-Zawahiri
The Egyptian Al-Zawahiri is the successor to Osama bin Laden, who was considered to be the head of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA. Bin Laden was killed by a US special forces unit in Pakistan in 2011. The US has put a bounty of 25 million dollars (around 21 million euros) on Al-Zawahiri. Experts always assumed that he was hiding in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. (SDA)