SITE: Qaeda in Iraq names new ‘war minister’

DUBAI – A new “war minister” has been named for the Al-Qaeda front organisation in Iraq following the deaths last month of two top leaders, an Internet monitoring group reported on Friday.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group service said that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the branch of Al-Qaeda in the country, named him in a statement posted on jihadist Internet forums.
“The new War Minister is identified as al-Nasser Lideen Illah Abu Suleiman, ‘The Supporter for the Faith of Allah, Abu Suleiman’,” it reported.
On April 18, two top Al-Qaeda commanders, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, were killed in a shootout when a joint Iraqi-US force raided their safehouse north of Baghdad.
Baghdadi was the political leader of the group in Iraq while Masri, an Egyptian militant, was its self-styled “minister of war.”
“The ISI had not previously announced replacements for these top officials,” SITE said on Friday.
It said Abu Suleiman also announced a military campaign dubbed “The Attack of the Monotheists in Revenge for Honours in the Prisons of Apostates,” and vowed that the ISI will continue to wage jihad.

Source: Middle East Online