US: Osama bin Laden praised slain al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an audiotape released on Thursday as a "brave knight" and a "lion of jihad" whose small band of fighters had humiliated the United States and the Iraqis who fought against him.
The tape's posting on a jihadist website was heralded for 24 hours before it appeared late on Thursday night, and is the fourth bin Laden has produced this year. A US counter-terrorism official said experts were still analysing the tape, but that "there's no reason to doubt that it's real".
The tape demonstrates both the increasing sophistication of al-Qaeda's propaganda and an aggressive marketing effort to portray bin Laden as the leader of a viable worldwide movement connecting Islamic struggles. Al-Zarqawi was killed by US troops north of Baghdad early last month.
"The flag did not fall" with al-Zarqawi's death, bin Laden said, "but was transferred from one lion to another Islamic lion" - in the form of new leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Addressing President Bush, he said "we will continue, God willing, fighting you and your allies everywhere in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, until we exhaust your resources, and kill your men and [ you] go back defeated".