Iraq’s al-Qaida wing has posted a video of its new leader reading a statement before the killing of a Turkish hostage, Al Arabiya television said on Saturday.
Pictures aired by Arabiya showed three masked men standing behind the seated hostage. Behind them was a black banner saying: “No God but Allah”. An accompanying statement said the al-Qaida in Iraq leader was one of the three.
“According to a statement posted on the Internet this is the first appearance of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, known also as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir. It said the tape was old without giving the date it was made,” the Dubai-based television said.
It did not name the site where it had found them and the tape did not immediately appear on the main Web sites used by al-Qaida and other Islamist groups.
Arabiya said Muhajir was reading a statement. His voice was not heard. The television said the gunmen later killed the hostage.
Earlier in September, a man identified as Muhajir called on Muslims in an audio tape to support the mujahideen in Iraq.
In July, al-Qaida named Muhajir as the successor to the group’s slain leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed when U.S. warplanes bombed his hideout in a village north of Baghdad.