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Al Qaeda released a statement on militant Web sites Friday confirming the death of Osama bin Laden, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi Web sites. The lengthy statement, dated May 3 and signed by Al Qaeda's General Command, warned of new attacks and called on the Pakistani people to rebel against their government to protest its relations with the United States.
Bin Laden was killed in a United States raid early Monday morning in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
According to a translation provided by SITE, which ran more than three pages, the statement said that Al Qaeda would not die with its founder and that its members would “continue on the path of jihad.” Bin Laden's blood, they added, would not be “wasted in vain.”
“It will remain, with permission from God the Almighty, a curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries,” the letter said. “Soon — with help from God — their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears.”
The authors of the statement said that the people of Pakistan should revolt against their leaders to “cleanse this shame that has been attached to them” by the American raid.
The statement demanded that Bin Laden's remains be given to his family, not disposed of in an “improper way”; his body was buried at sea on Monday by United States forces.
The statement also said the bodies of any relatives who had been killed should be handed over to the family and warned that “any offense will open unto you doors of multitudes of evil for which you will only have yourselves to blame.” One of Bin Laden’s sons was killed in the raid, according to American officials.
The statement announced that Bin Laden made an audio recording one week before his death, which Al Qaeda leaders said they plan to release soon.
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