DUBAI, July 31: A senior Al Qaeda operative in an Internet video posted on Tuesday praised the Islamists who died in clashes with government forces during a raid on Lal Masjid earlier this month.

Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of Al Qaeda’s leaders in Afghanistan, hailed as ‘martyrs’ the pro-Taliban militants who were killed when troops stormed the mosque on July 10-11.

“They engraved a page in history, a story of fighting which seldom will be repeated,” Libi said in the video, which was produced by Al Qaeda's media wing and provided to AFP by the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group.

Libi also called for the overthrow of Pakistan’s pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf in the video, which had subtitles in Urdu.—AFP