Al-Qaida chief seems in 9/11 video amid rumors he’s useless

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a brand new video marking the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, assaults, months after rumors unfold that he was useless.
The SITE Intelligence Group that displays jihadist web sites stated the video was launched Saturday. In it, al-Zawahri stated that ‘Jerusalem Will Never be Judaized’, and praised al-Qaida assaults together with one which focused Russian troops in Syria in January.
SITE stated al-Zawahri additionally famous the US army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of battle. It added that his feedback don’t essentially point out a latest recording, because the withdrawal settlement with the Taliban was signed in February 2020.

Al-Zawahri made no point out of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul final month, SITE added. But he did point out a January 1, assault that focused Russian troops on the sting of the northern Syrian metropolis of Raqqa.Rumors have unfold since late 2020 that al-Zawahri had died from sickness. Since then, no video or proof of life surfaced, till Saturday.
“He could still be dead, though if so, it would have been at some point in or after Jan 2021,” tweeted Rita Katz, SITE’s director.
Al-Zawahri’s speech was recorded in a 61-minute, 37-second video produced by the group’s as-Sahab Media Foundation.

In latest years, al-Qaida has confronted competitors in jihadi circles from its rival, the Islamic State group. IS rose to prominence by seizing massive swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a ‘caliphate’ and increasing associates to a number of international locations throughout the area.
IS’s bodily ‘caliphate’ was crushed in Iraq and Syria, although its militants are nonetheless energetic and finishing up assaults. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy chief of IS was killed by US particular forces in a raid in northwestern Syria in October 2019.
Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, grew to become chief of al-Qaida following the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALs.