SITE Intelligence Group—AFP
Terror group praises surge in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called for lone wolf attacks against Western countries, in particular America, and praised recent Palestinian attacks against Israelis.
Zawahiri spoke in a video released on Twitter and published and translated Monday by U.S.-based SITE, which monitors violent extremist websites. SITE noted that the video was broadcast on Twitter, on Sunday, rather than on extremist websites as is usually the case.
“The first matter is striking the West and specifically America in its own home, and attacking their interests that are spread everywhere,” Zawahiri said, according to SITE. “The supporters of Israel must pay with their blood and their economy.”
As examples of lone wolf attacks, he cited the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev. Their attack with pressure cooker bombs killed three people and wounded 264.
The Al Qaeda leader hailed the past month’s attacks by Palestinians against Israelis in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel and the West Bank. He also repeated an appeal first launched in September for jihadists to unite from Turkey to North Africa, despite his rejection of the caliphate proclaimed by the Islamic State group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.