In a videotaped statement, Ayman al-Zawahiri said al Qaeda is joining forces with an Egyptian militant group.(Xinhua/AFP)

    BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, said that the long-quiet Egyptian militant group Al-Jamaa Islamiya has joined its force "under the al-Qaeda banner."

    "We announce to the Islamic nation the good news of the unification of a great faction of the knights of the Jamaa Islamiya ... with the al-Qaeda group," Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a videotape aired on Aljazeera on Saturday.

    The Egyptian group, Gamaa Islamiya, which is Egypt's main militant Islamist organisation, renounced violence nine years ago after several bloody attacks.

    Al-Zawahri said the Egyptian group was led by Mohammed al-Islambouli, the younger brother of Khaled al-Islambouli, the militant who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1979 and was later executed. Enditem

    (Agencies)