KABUL: Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed that the killing in Iraq of al-Qaida militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would not weaken Muslim efforts against "crusader forces," a Pakistan-based news agency said on Friday.

In one of the most significant developments in Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday in a US airstrike on a "safe house" north of Baghdad.

"I give good news to Muslims around the world, the resistance against the crusader forces in Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world will not be weakened," the Afghan Islamic Press cited Omar as saying in a statement.

The news agency did not say how it had obtained the purported statement from the fugitive Omar who, like al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border.

Zarqawi's killing will inevitably focus attention on the hunt for bin Laden, nearly five years after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent ouster of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden called Zarqawi, who was in his late 30s, the prince of al-Qaida in Iraq, and he came to symbolize the radical Islamist insurgency against US occupation.

Omar said he and "all the brothers of the sacred resistance movement in Afghanistan" expressed deep sorrow over the death.

"Zarqawi's martyrdom will not weaken the resistance movement in Iraq. Many, many more young men can become Zarqawi," Omar said. "The successors ... can be even stronger than him."

Al-Jazeera airs Zawahri's videotape

Al-Jazeera satellite channel broadcast on Friday excerpts of a videotape by deputy leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, in which he spoke about Palestinian and Egyptian politics and the situation in Darfur.

An Al-Jazeera announcer said that the tape was made before the announcement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death on Thursday, because al-Zawahri praised al-Qaida in Iraq leader's efforts to confront US-led forces in Iraq. "God bless the prophet of Islam in Iraq, the persistent hero of Islam, the Holy Warriors Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

Wearing a white turban and tunic al-Zawahri's appeared against a black background. He repeatedly waved his right hand and pointed his finger in a gesture of admonishment.

Al-Zawahri also urged Muslims to reject a referendum in Palestine. "I call on Muslims to reject any referendum on Palestine, because Palestine is a house of Islam and not subject to any compromise."

Source: China Daily