An al Qaeda-linked militant group in Iraq pledged support to the organisation's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, and vowed more revenge attacks for the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US forces in Pakistan. In a statement posted on an Islamist website forum on Monday, the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISC), Abu Baker al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al Qurashi, mourned bin Laden's death.
"I tell our brothers in al Qaeda organisation and on the top of them Sheikh Mujahid Ayman al-Zawahri ... 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.
Zawahri, an Egyptian-born doctor who met bin Laden in the mid-1980s when both were in Pakistan to support guerrillas fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, has long been considered al Qaeda's deputy leader. ISI is believed by intelligence analysts to have been created by al Qaeda in Iraq as a local umbrella group for insurgent organisations. Iraq's army and police have been on high alert for revenge attacks since bin Laden's killing by US commandos in Pakistan. Iraq became an important battlefield for al Qaeda after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.