Dubai - Al-Qaeda has confirmed the death of a senior lieutenant to the movement's chief Osama bin Laden, according to a video posted on the Internet today which also announced a coming "victory" in Iraq.

An al-Qaeda leader who gave his name as Abu Yahia al-Libi said in the video that the Kuwaiti-born Omar al-Farouk had "fallen a martyr'' in Iraq, and detailed his career in militancy, which began in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.

Farouk's death on September 25 was announced by the British military, which said British forces killed a gunman who opened fire on them as they raided a house in the southern Iraqi city of Basra hunting for the militant, also known as Mahmud Ahmed Mohammed al-Rashid.

Farouk, who was 35 and also went by the name Mahmud Ahmed Mohammed al-Rashid, had been accused of leading the al-Qaeda Islamist network in Southeast Asia. Genetic tests on his remains proved his identity, the US-led coalition said last month.

Farouk was arrested in Indonesia in July 2002 at a time when he was allegedly planning attacks on Western embassies in Jakarta. On July 10 last year he managed to escape from a US airbase in Afghanistan.

Farouk's escape along with three other suspects from Bagram air base was an embarrassment for US authorities, and the militant appeared on Arabic television in a video to brag about his flight.

He apparently made his way to Iraq, his parents' birthplace, where British troops tracked him down. In the video, Abu Yahia - a Libyan thought to be among those who escaped from Bagram with Farouk in July 2005 - also said signs were emerging of an al-Qaeda victory in Iraq.

"Your primary enemy (the United States) recognises with full humility that its entry into Iraq was a mistake... Persevere. The first signs of victory in Iraq are showing,'' he said. The other two militants to have escaped from Bagram are Saudi Arabian Mohammed al-Qahtani and Syrian Abdullah Hashemi.