Bin Laden endorses al-Zarqawi

by on December 27th, 2004

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bin_laden_tape

CAIRO, Egypt – In an audiotape broadcast Monday by Al-Jazeera satellite television, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of next month’s elections there.

The voice on the tape described al-Zarqawi as the “emir,” or prince, of al-Qaida in Iraq and said Muslims there should “listen to him.”

The man speaking on the tape also referred to an October statement in which al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, declared allegiance to bin Laden and changed his group’s name to al-Qaida in Iraq. The speaker called that “a great step on the path of unifying all the mujahedeen in establishing the state of righteousness and ending the state of injustice.”

Etalkinghead Staff