DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri mourned two leading members of the terror network who were killed last month in Pakistan, in a video message posted Friday on the Internet.
"I announce to you the good news of the martyrdom of my friend ... Sheikh Abu Khabab al-Masri and his pious comrades," Zawahiri said in a videotape posted on a website used by Islamist militant groups.
"With him also passed away ... our brother and educator, Ibrahim, who is the son of Sheikh Abi al-Faraj al-Masri, may Allah end his captivity," Zawahiri added in the brief message limited to the eulogy.
He also identified two other Al-Qaeda members killed in the attack as Sheikh Abdul Wahab, and Abu Islam, "an in-law" of Abu Khabab.
"This blessed convoy has gone to Allah, to whom they can make grievances about American oppression and the Pakistan government's treason," he said.
The second-in-command to Osama bin Laden, wearing a white tunic and matching turban, spoke in Arabic against the backdrop of soft-focus photos of two bearded and turbaned men -- presumably the two Masris.
Al-Qaeda confirmed early this month that Abu Khabab al-Masri -- a top expert on chemical and biological weapons -- had been killed along with other "heroes" in late July.
Pakistani officials said a July 28 missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal area killed Masri, an Egyptian militant whose full name is Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar.
Local residents said the strike was carried out by a pilotless US drone.
Pakistan's Taliban movement, in power in Afghanistan until a 2001 US-led invasion, swiftly denied a US television report at the time that Zawahiri may have been wounded or killed in the same missile attack.
Egyptian-born Zawahiri, who frequently emerges in video or audio tapes to speak for Al-Qaeda, has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head.
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