Bin Laden message posted on Arab protests
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden praises Arab revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia in a posthumous audio message and tells Muslims to take advantage of this "rare historic opportunity" to rise up, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.
As-Sahab released the audio speech in a 12-minute, 37-second video posted on jihadist forums on May 18, 2011, "addressing Muslims in regard to the revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa," SITE Intelligence reported.
A covert US Navy SEAL team killed bin Laden on May 2 at his Pakistan compound in Abbotabad.
The general command of Al-Qaeda confirmed bin Laden's death in a statement dated May 3, released on jihadist forums May 6, SITE added. The service said it would soon publish a translated transcript of the message.
"In that statement, the group indicated that bin Laden had recorded an audio one week prior to his death, addressing the revolutions and offering advice and guidance," the US monitoring group said.
Meanwhile Al-Qaeda has chosen a former Egyptian special forces officer as interim leader of the violent extremist group following the death this month of Osama bin Laden, CNN and al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday.
Saif al-Adel, a top Al-Qaeda strategist and senior military leader, has been tapped as "caretaker" chief of the group, CNN reported, citing former Libyan militant Noman Benotman, who has renounced Al-Qaeda's ideology.
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