Al-Qaida Threatens Bin Laden will ‘Terrify’ U.S. from Beyond Death

Jun 09, 2011 08:32 AM EDT

Al-Qaida’s number two has issued a chilling warning to the West saying that Osama bin Laden will continue to “terrify” the U.S. and its allies from beyond the grave.

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s message has been posted on Jihadist websites five weeks since the killing of bin Laden, and is the first time that al-Zawahiri has spoken publicly about his leader’s death.

The statement also comes just a week after Ilyas Kashmiri, a potential successor to bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

The video lasted for 28 minutes, most of which is a eulogy to the late bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri said, “The sheikh has departed, may God have mercy on him, to his God as a martyr and we must continue on his path of jihad to expel the invaders from the land of Muslims and to purify it from injustice.”

He added: “Today, and thanks be to God, America is not facing an individual or a group, but a rebelling nation, which has awoken from its sleep in a jihadist renaissance.”

The video message also condemns the U.S. for burying bin Laden’s body at sea.

In shorter messages, al-Zawahiri urged for Egypt to apply Sharia Islamic law.