"Osama bin Laden Will Continue to Terrify The U.S. for Years"

Al Qaeda's second in command today issued a eulogy for Osama Bin Laden, claiming the terror chief would continue to terrify the U.S. even after his death.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, likely to be the terror group's next leader and long considered its operational head, heaped praise on Bin Laden - who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan on May 2.

The extremist figure, who is believed to be operating from somewhere near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, also attacked the U.S. for burying the terror chief at sea and urged the Pakistani people to rise up against the country's military rulers and politicians.

Within days of the Bin Laden raid, Al Qaeda had issued a statement vowing to keep fighting the U.S., a message that was likely designed to convince followers that the organization would remain vigorous and intact even after its founder's demise.

But al-Zawahri's eulogy was the first comment on Bin Laden's killing by his potential successor. Wearing a white Arab robe and turban and carrying a Kalashnikov, al-Zawahiri appeared in a 28-minute video posted on militant websites today.

During the recording, he said: 'Today, and thanks be to God, (the United States of) America is not facing an individual or a group ... but a rebelling nation which has awaken from its sleep in a Jihadist renaissance challenging it wherever it was.

'The man has terrified America when he was alive and is terrifying it even when he is dead, to the extent that they denied him a tomb.'

Al-Zawahiri said U.S. officials had withheld the release of photographs of Bin Laden's body over fears of the 'Islamic people's anger and hate' for America.

And he claimed Bin Laden had 'achieved what he wanted to do, which is to incite the Islamic nation to holy war and his message had reached all'. The eulogy is titled 'The Noble Knight Dismounted' and the video footage was produced by Al Qaeda's media arm - as-Sahab.

Bin Laden's death in the Navy Seal-led U.S. operation on a fortified compound in Abbottabad sparked an outpouring of grief and threats of revenge by Al Qaeda supporters.

Al-Zawahri, who is Egyptian, is a less charismatic and unifying figure, and he is believed to lack Bin Laden's ability to bring together the many nationalities and ethnic groups that make up Al Qaeda. His appointment as the next leader could further fracture an organisation that is thought to be increasingly decentralised.

The euology included five poems of praise for Bin Laden, describing him alternately as modest, noble and shrewd commander and tthe vanguard of jihad (holy war) against the Communists and then the Crusaders,t a reference to his campaign in the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s and the Sept 11, 2011 attacks against the United States. Al-Zawahri also vented his anger at the Pakistani military leaders and politicians, implying they had a role in Bin Laden's death.

'I call on the Pakistani nation to rise up against the mercenary military traitors and the corrupt politicians who turned Pakistan into an American colony, allowing it (America) to kill or capture whoever it wants," al-Zawahri said.

He concluded by saying bin Laden will remain a 'source of horror and a nightmare chasing America, Israel and their allies'.