American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on US diplomats

Al Qaeda's Adam Gadahn appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to militants in the region.

DUBAI: An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the US ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a US-based monitoring group said on Sunday.

Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open on Sunday after being closed for 12 days.

Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million US price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the US ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.

"These prizes have a great effect in instilling fear in the hearts of our cowardly enemies," Gadahn said in the 39-minute video recording in Arabic posted on websites used by militants, according to SITE.

"They also encourage hesitant individuals to carry out important and great deeds in the path of Allah," he said, in an English transcript on SITE.

The Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda last year offered three kilogrammes (106 ounces) of gold for the killing of the US ambassador in Sanaa or $23,350 for an American soldier in the Arab state.

US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in Libya's Benghazi in 2012 when dozens of gunmen attacked a loosely guarded US diplomatic compound and a nearby, better-fortified CIA annex.

Gadahn has called for attacks on US diplomats before. In August 2007, he said al Qaeda would target diplomats and embassies in retaliation for US-led military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The FBI has been trying to question Gadahn - believed to be in Pakistan - since 2004 and the US government has offered up to $1 million in cash for information leading to his arrest.