Cairo, Dec 22 (IANS/AKI) Jihadist websites were flooded with messages of condolences to Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri over his mother's death. Umayma Azzam, died Sunday from a heart complaint in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, at the age of 75.

She died at Cairo's al-Salam hospital, where she was admitted earlier last week.

In a message posted to the Arabic news website Moheet, Azzam's brother Mahfouz al-Azzam said he was proud of his nephew al-Zawahiri who he said "defends the principles of Islam".

Al-Azzam announced his sister's death and said she was buried Sunday in a high-security ceremony at a local mosque in the Cairo suburb of Halwan. Almost everyone in the town attended the funeral, according to witnesses.

The Azzam family is one of the most prominent in Cairo. Mahfouz al-Azzam, a retired judge, was recently appointed the leader of the local Socialist party.

Al-Zawahiri's maternal grandfather, Abdel Wahab Azzam, was rector of the University of Cairo and Egypt's ambassador to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The current whereabouts of 58-year-old al-Zawahiri are unknown.

A qualified surgeon, he and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and the top leadership of the terror network are believed to be hiding in Pakistan.