Al-Qaeda names Zawahiri new leader

Al-Qaeda's "general command" this morning confirming that Osama bin Laden's longtime deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri had been named the group's new leader . The statement also reaffirmed the group's fight against the "crusader America and its servant Israel, and whoever supports them" .

The Journal reports that CIA chief Leon Panetta is working to gain the release from Pakistani custody of a Pakistani army doctor said to have been detained for helping the United States track bin Laden down . The doctor, identified by some news sources as Major Amir Aziz, owns a house close to the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was killed, and may have rented the house to CIA agents observing bin Laden (McClatchy, BBC, Independent, CNN). Pakistan's military has publicly denied the arrest of any military officer .

This newest spat between Pakistan and the United States comes as Pakistan's army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is reportedly under intense pressure from within the country's armed forces over his perceived closeness with the U.S. military . The Post reports that Kayani is "fighting to survive," as the security relationship between the two countries has reached its lowest level since 2001, though U.S. officials asserted Wednesday that the U.S.-Pakistan bond was still "strong" .

Austrian authorities this morning arrested three men who allegedly sought to travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan for militant training, as well as a fourth man in Vienna who police said acted as a recruiter. The men are reportedly linked to the "German Taliban Mujahideen."