U.S. Pledges To Kill Zawahiri

The BBC reports:

The US will hunt down and kill new al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as it did Osama Bin Laden, Washington's top military officer has vowed.

Adm Mike Mullen said al-Qaeda still posed a threat to the U.S.

"As we did both seek to capture and kill - and succeed in killing - Bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahiri," he said.

Zawahiri's appointment was posted on a militant website and attributed to al-Qaeda's General Command.

"There is not a surprise from my perspective that he has moved into that position," Adm Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told journalists.

Zawahiri has for a long time been the militant group's second-in-command. Osama Bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in May.