CAIRO, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Claims by a senior leader of the al-Qaida terror network that an Egyptian militant group has joined al-Qaida's ranks have been vehemently denied.
Saturday, al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, said on the al-Jazeera television network that the Jemaah Islamiya had joined forces with al-Qaida, saying the union would "bring together the powers of the Muslim nation as one rank in the face of its enemies in the fiercest battle declared against the Muslim nation in its history."
Jemaah Islamiya emerged during the 1970s, with members coming from jails and later universities, and is believed responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Sunday, the group posted a notice on its Web site, denying any association with al-Qaida, CNN reported.
"The Jemaah Islamiya in Egypt stresses that what Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri said on al-Jazeera in relation to that Jemaah has joined al-Qaida is not true, and it absolutely rejects the claims in its entirety," the statement said. "Regarding what was mentioned in Dr. Ayman's claim about some of Jemaah leadership's names, alluding that it has joined al-Qaida, contradicts reality."
