Reuters, AAP
May 10, 2011, 3:52 am
'I swear, blood for blood'
Al-Qaeda has vowed to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden with blood and destruction under their new leader.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-linked militant group in Iraq pledged support to the organization's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and vowed more revenge attacks for the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of U.S. forces in Pakistan.
In a statement posted on an Islamist website forum on Monday, the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Baker al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Qurashi, mourned bin Laden's death.
"I tell our brothers in al Qaeda organization and on the top of them Sheikh Mujahid Ayman al-Zawahiri ... be merry, you have faithful men in the Islamic State of Iraq who are following the right path and will not quit or be forced out," he said in the statement.
"I swear by God, blood for blood and destruction for destruction," he said in a clear reference to revenge attacks for bin Laden's death.
The statement by al Qaeda in Iraq made it the first group to throw its weight publicly behind Zawahiri, who is widely expected to succeed bin Laden.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born doctor, met bin Laden in the mid-1980s when both were in Pakistan to support guerrillas fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. His current whereabouts are unknown.
In a separate statement, ISI claimed responsibility for an attack at a police building in the mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla, in which more than 20 people were killed.
Thursday, a suicide bomber rammed his car into the entrance of a police headquarters in the center of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, during a shift change when many officers were outside the building.
Iraq's army and police have been on high alert for revenge attacks since bin Laden's killing by U.S. commandos in Pakistan. Iraq became an important battlefield for al Qaeda after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Security officials have said bin Laden's death earlier this month may have little practical impact on al Qaeda in Iraq, a weakened but still deadly Islamist insurgency that could launch strikes for the next decade.
Al Qaeda in Iraq may seek immediate revenge for the killing of the world's most wanted man but in the long run probably will be more a thorn in the Iraqi government's side than a destabilizing force, security officials said.
ISI is believed by intelligence analysts to have been created by al Qaeda in Iraq as a local umbrella group for insurgent organizations.
PAKISTAN DISMISSES BIN LADEN ACCUSATIONS
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani addressing the press conference in Paris Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Pakistan's prime minister has dismissed as "absurd" accusations that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden must have benefited from official complicity or incompetence to hide out in his country.
Addressing parliament on Monday in his first comments since bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs a week ago less than 2km from a top military academy, Yousuf Raza Gilani promised an investigation, to be led by a top Pakistani general.
But he said he has "full confidence in the high command of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)" spy agency, both accused of failing to spot bin Laden hiding under their noses, or even of protecting him.
"We are determined to get to the bottom of how, when and why about OBL's presence in Abbottabad," he said. "Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. We emphatically reject such accusations."
Gilani also bowed to domestic opposition to America's covert action on Pakistani soil, saying: "Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences."
The premier has been under mounting pressure from both Washington and his own people after bin Laden was confirmed to have been living in an urban compound only 55km from Islamabad.
Pakistan is a key ally in the US-led war against Taliban militants in Afghanistan, but there has been an outcry in the US, with President Barack Obama saying the terror kingpin must have had some kind of backing.
"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan," Obama, speaking on the matter for the first time, told the CBS show 60 Minutes.
"But we don't know who or what that support network was. We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate."
Helicopter-borne US Navy SEALs carried out a raid lasting less than 40 minutes, killed bin Laden and seized a vast haul of data from his compound in Abbottabad on May 2.
Senior US officials have said they have no proof that Islamabad knew about bin Laden's hideout.
But outraged US lawmakers have voiced suspicion that elements of Pakistan's military intelligence services must have known his whereabouts, and are demanding that billions of dollars in American aid be suspended.
Similarly, Pakistanis are furiously asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was there or, worse, conspired to protect him, while at the same time denouncing the perceived impunity of the American raid.
Gilani sought to deflect the criticism, blaming "all intelligence agencies of the world" for the failure to locate bin Laden, and declaring: "Pakistan is not the birthplace of al-Qaeda."
In a thinly veiled allusion to US funding for Pakistan's role in the 1990s war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, which ultimately gave birth to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Gilani said it's unfair for Pakistan to take all blame.
"Collectively, we must acknowledge facts and see our faces in the mirror of history. Pakistan alone cannot be held to account for flawed policies and blunders of others," he said in his televised speech.
"We did not invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan or even to Afghanistan."
Hundreds of Taliban rallied in the Pakistani tribal town of Wana on Monday, condemning the killing and vowing revenge against both Washington and Islamabad.
It was the first pro-bin Laden demonstration in Pakistan's tribal belt, which Washington has called a headquarters of al-Qaeda.
The debacle has been a serious embarrassment for Pakistan's powerful military establishment, and Islamabad's civilian leadership has been left reeling.
Pakistan's military has hit back at the allegations, demanding that the United States cut its troop presence in the country to a "minimum" and threatening to review cooperation if another unilateral raid is conducted.
Gilani also insisted Pakistan reserves the right to "retaliate with full force", although he stopped short of spelling what, if anything, would be done if the US staged another unilateral high-profile anti-terror raid.
The White House says President Barack Obama reserves the right to take action again in the country.
In his interview, broadcast on Sunday, Obama held out the possibility of further action, saying the vast haul of data gathered from bin Laden's compound could lead to other al-Qaeda figures.
"We've got a chance to, I think, really deliver a fatal blow to this organisation, if we follow through aggressively in the months to come," he said.
"We anticipate that it can give us leads to other terrorists that we've been looking for a long time, other high-value targets."
White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon has said the United States is focusing its attention on bin Laden's longstanding deputy, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Reportedly last seen in October 2001 in eastern Afghanistan, close to the lawless tribal regions along the Pakistan border, Zawahiri has released several videos from hiding, calling for war on the West.
For a decade, Islamabad has been America's wary Afghan war ally, despite widespread public opposition and militant bomb attacks across the nuclear-armed country that have killed several thousand people.
But Pakistan has never been fully trusted by either Kabul or Washington, which accuse its powerful military of fostering the Afghan Taliban it spawned during the 1980s resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The White House has called on Islamabad to help counter growing mistrust by granting US investigators access to three of bin Laden's widows who are in Pakistani custody and could have vital information on al-Qaeda.
Bin Laden's Yemeni wife, who was shot in the leg during the raid, told investigators the al-Qaeda kingpin and his family had lived in the compound in Abbottabad for five years, an official said.
Al-Qaeda has acknowledged bin Laden's death -- and vowed to avenge it -- but no successor has been announced and debate is now swirling over who might take the reins of the terror network.
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