IRAQ: NEW AL-QAEDA VIDEO LAUDS MUJAHADEEN

Baghdad, 13 Apil (AKI) -Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri has appeared in a video praising insurgents in Iraq, especially the terror network's leader in that country, Jordanian militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. At the start of the video, which appeared on the Internet early on Friday, and is dated November, 2005, Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri says: "The Islamic nation must support its heroic mujahadeen - we are fighting in the trenches for the dignity of Islam."

"To my fellow mujahadeen in Iraq, I say keep up the fight and stay united. The enemy has begun to waver, so continue the resistance until he is defeated," says al-Zawahiri, who is regarded as Bin Laden's right-hand man.

He describes al-Zarqawi - Iraq's most notorious insurgent, associated with the bloodiest bombings, assassinations and beheadings of foreign hostages - as his "beloved brother".
"I have lived with him up close and have seen nothing but good from him," Zawahiri states.

Al-Zawahiri issues the following warning to Muslims in Iraq: "Whoever opposes Jihad (holy war) against the occupying Crusaders, betrays Allah and his prophet, and is a traitor to all Muslims." He appeared in videos in January this year, where he called on US president George W. Bush to admit defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also taunted the US over its airstrike in January on a Pakistani village, which failed to kill him.

Al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden have evaded caputure since US-led forces brought down the Taliban regime in Afghanistan at the end of 2001 following the 11 September attacks on the US.