Al Qaeda’s 'American spokesman' urges attacks in the West

The Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn urges Muslims in the West to carry out attacks in the "Zio-Crusader coalition" states.

DUBAI: Al Qaeda's 'American spokesman', Adam Gadahn, has urged fellow Muslims in the West to carry out attacks in the "Zio-Crusader coalition" states, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Saturday.

"To my Muslim brothers residing in the states of the Zio-Crusader coalition... know that Jihad (holy war) is your duty as well," Gadahn said in a video, excerpts of which were provided by the US monitoring group.

He addressed Muslims in "emigrant communities like those which live on the margins of society in the miserable suburbs of Paris, London and Detroit, or are from those arriving in America or Europe to study in its universities or seek their daily bread in the streets of its cities," SITE said.

"You have an opportunity to strike the leaders of unbelief and retaliate against them on their own soil, as long as there is no covenant between you and them," he added in the 48 minute, 20 second video, produced by Al-Qaeda media arm As-Sahab.

He urged Arabs to launch "heroic operations similar to the invasion of the American consulate in Peshawar and the bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad," in their cities and capitals.

However, "it is obligatory to avoid harming Muslims and destroying their properties" when carrying out such attacks, he said in Arabic, with the video providing English subtitles.

Six Pakistanis were killed in an April attack on the US consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

In June 2008, a car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad killing at least eight people, including a Dane, and wounding about 27 others.

Gadahn also called on Muslims to attack "American military bases spread across the (Arabian) Peninsula, the Gulf, the Levant countries and elsewhere… like the one carried out by Major Nidal Hasan," the US Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam the American, was born in 1978. He is a native of southern California and has appeared in several videotapes for al Qaeda since 2004.