Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki calls for Americans to be killed

Video obtained on in May 2010 shows Yemeni-American cleric Anwaral-Awlaki. Picture: SITE Intelligence Group Source: AFP

A US-born radical cleric who belongs to the al-Qa'ida offshoot behind the recent foiled cargo bomb plot has told Muslims they are free to kill American "devils'' at will in a video posted on extremist websites.

In past messages, Anwar al-Awlaki has justified killing American civilians as retaliation for the killing of hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

But the video posted overnight appeared to be an escalation, with the 39-year-old cleric arguing that no rationale was needed to seek out and kill Americans.

"Don't consult with anybody in killing the Americans,'' al-Awlaki said in the 23-minute video, in which he appeared dressed in a white robe and turban, with a sheathed dagger tucked into his waistband.

"Fighting the devil does not require a fatwa, nor consultation nor prayers seeking divine guidance. They are the party of Satan and fighting them is the obligation of the time,'' he said.

Fatwas are religious rulings on even the most mundane personal issues, such as marriage or finances and have been issued to allow the killing of people deemed to have insulted Islam or to have harmed Muslims.

In the video, al-Awlaki accused the United States of pouring money into Yemen to encourage Yemenis to shun their religion.

"There is an American policy presented to the Yemeni government, funded by the West, for the people of this country to alienate them from their religion,'' said al-Awlaki, who was born in the US state of New Mexico to Yemeni parents.

Al-Awlaki's vitriolic sermons have inspired several attacks against the United States, and Yemeni officials say he may have given his blessing to the mail bomb plot even if he did not take an active part in it.

The al-Qa'ida branch in Yemen, al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed responsibility for last week's foiled bomb plot, when two parcel bombs sent from Yemen addressed to synagogues in Chicago were discovered in England and the United Arab Emirates.

US intelligence has linked al-Awlaki to the September 11, 2001 hijackers and to last year's failed Christmas day bombing of a jetliner over Detroit.

He also has ties to Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in November at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base.

US investigators say that since he returned to Yemen in 2006, al-Awlaki has moved beyond just inspiring militants to becoming an active operative in al-Qa'ida's affiliate there.

Short excerpts from the al-Awlaki video were released on October 23, two weeks before the mail bombs were uncovered. But this was the first full posting of the video.

Al-Awlaki also attacked rulers in the Arab world, describing them as corrupt, and he called on religious scholars to declare them "non-Muslims'' for betraying the Muslim people.

"Kings, emirs, and presidents are now not qualified to lead the nation, or even a flock of sheep,'' he said.

"If the leaders are corrupt, the scholars have the responsibility to lead the nation.''

He added that these leaders would have to be removed for the Muslim people to move forward.

The only way Muslims can protect themselves from the threat of the infidels is by supporting the "mujahedeen,'' he said.

"If we support the mujahedeen, we will win it all and if we let them down, we will lose it all,'' he said.