Senior Al Qaeda leader condemns Pak govt. in Bin Laden eulogy

A senior al Qaeda leader, who is believed to have been killed in early June this year, has appeared on a propaganda tape, praising Osama bin Laden and condemning the Pakistani government for betraying the terror group and allied organizations

As Sahab (the Clouds), al Qaeda's media production arm, has released the videotape on Islamist forums, featuring Ustadh Ahmad Farooq, al Qaeda's media emir and head of "Islamic Propagation" for Pakistan, and images of bin Laden, The Long War Journal reports.

The videotape is titled "With Such an Elevated Status They Met Allah!, and reports suggest that a translation of Farooq's statement was provided by the SITE Intel Group.

The release of the tape has raised doubts about the deaths of Farooq and Ilyas Kashmiri, the al Qaeda military chief and leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Brigade 313. Both al Qaeda commanders were earlier reported to have been killed in the June 3 Predator airstrike in South Waziristan.

Although the tape, dated May 21-- 12 days before Farooq was reported killed, indicate the possibility that he was killed on the June 3 attack, doubts have been raised whether al Qaeda would release an eulogy for bin Laden by a leader who was also dead.

In today's tape, Farooq attacked Pakistan for betraying al Qaeda and allied groups such as the Afghan Taliban, saying: "Pakistani armed forces and its intelligence agencies have betrayed the Ummah, the religion and the global Jihadi movement."

"We will purify this land from the filth of these apostates [the Pakistani military and government] and establish a true Pakistan (land of the pure) where all Mujahideen and emigrants, Arab and non-Arab, will walk freely on the streets of Islamabad, fearing none other than Allah alone," he added.