Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is calling on young Muslim men in the United States and other Western countries to carry out attacks inside there, Reuters reported on Sunday.
"I call on all Muslims who can harm the countries of the crusader coalition not to hesitate. We must now focus on moving the war to the heart of the homes and cities of the crusader West and specifically America," he said in an audio recording posted online, referring to nations making up the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.
He suggested Muslim youth in the West take the Tsarnaev and Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Boston marathon bombings and Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris respectively, and others as examples to follow.
It was not clear when the recording was made but references to former Taliban leader Mullah Mohamed Omar as being alive suggest it is at least two months old, noted Reuters. Omar's death was announced by Afghanistan's government in late July.
Zawahiri reiterated his position on Islamic State, repeating what he said in a recording posted on Wednesday - that he viewed the group's claim to be a caliphate as illegitimate but would join them in fighting Western and secular forces in Iraq and Syria.
He also urged unity between Islamist militant in Syria and Iraq, where a Western-led coalition is bombing Islamic State targets, but recognized it would he be difficult. He called for the formation of an independent sharia court to settle disputes.
Despite fierce fighting in Syria between ISIS and a coalition of powerful jihadist groups which included Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front, Al-Nusra and ISIS had temporarily agreed to work together several months ago.
However, by June this year that alliance seemed to have ended, when ISIS jihadists beheaded 12 men from rival Syrian rebel movements. Three of those killed in the new video were from Jaysh al-Islam, one of the main rebel groups in the Damascus area, and a fourth from Al-Nusra Front.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)