Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has voiced his support for the Syrian uprising in a new video message released on jihadist Internet forums, US monitors said on Sunday.
In the video titled “Onwards, Lions of Syria”, Zawahiri criticised the Syrian regime for crimes against its citizens, and praised those rising up against the government, SITE Intelligence Group said. Zawahiri, shown in front of a green curtain in the eight-minute video released Saturday, urged Syrians not to rely on Western or Arab governments, which he said would impose a new regime subservient to the West. “Don’t depend on the West or America, or the Arab governments and Turkey,” he said, according to the SITE translation. “(They) had deals, mutual understanding and sharing with this regime for decades. “Depend on Allah alone and then on your sacrifices, resistance and steadfastness,” he added. “I appeal to every Muslim and every free, honourable one in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, to rise to help his brothers in Syria with all that he can,” Zawahiri was quoted as saying. The Al-Qaeda leader described the government of President Bashar al-Assad as a “pernicious, cancerous regime that suffocates the free people in Syria.”
