Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, has issued a new audio message in which he eulogizes Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, whom US forces killed last month, a monitoring group said yesterday.
The Egyptian militant Zawahri, thought to be in hiding in mountainous territory close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, is heard speaking in the 28-minute video, the US-based Intel Center said.
Mehsud was killed by US forces in a strike in the Pakistani region of South Waziristan on Aug. 5.
It was the latest in a flurry of messages from the leaders of al-Qaeda, who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Osama bin Laden, the Saudi leader of the Islamist network, urged European nations to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan in a tape issued on Friday.
Last Wednesday, Zawahri appeared in an elaborate 106-minute video production marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, in which he blasted Arab leaders and US President Barack Obama for their policies on Israel.
On Sept. 14, bin Laden “addressed the American people” in an 11 minute-long tape over their government’s ties to Israel.
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
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