The al-Qaeda leader appeared in a video released on the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, months after rumors of his death circulated.
The SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors jihadist pages on the internet, reported that the video was released on Saturday.
In the recording, Ayman al-Zawahri declares that “Jerusalem will never be Judaized” and praises several al-Qaeda attacks, including one against Russian troops in Syria in January.
SITE claimed that al-Zawahri mentioned the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but stressed that this does not necessarily mean the video is recent, as the United States reached an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw from Asian country in February 2020.
Did he live or die?
Al-Zawahri does not mention the Taliban’s seizure of power in Kabul last month, SITE said. But he does mention the attack on Russian troops that took place in Raqqa, Syria, on January 1. Since the end of 2020, rumors have it that al-Zawahri died of an illness. Since then there were no signs of him, until last Saturday.