CAIRO — A U.S.-born cleric who has encouraged Muslims to kill American soldiers called for the killing of U.S. civilians in his first video released by a Yemeni offshoot of al-Qaeda, providing the most overt link yet between the radical preacher and the terrorist group.
Dressed in a white Yemeni robe and turban and with a traditional jambiyah dagger tucked into his waistband, Anwar al-Awlaki used the 45-minute video posted Sunday to justify civilian deaths — and encourage them — by accusing the United States of intentionally killing a million Muslim civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere.
American civilians are to blame, he said, because “the American people, in general, are taking part in this and they elected this administration and they are financing the war.”
“Those who might be killed in a plane are merely a drop of water in a sea,” he said in the video in response to a question about Muslim groups that disapproved of an airliner plot because it targeted civilians.
Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and is believed to be hiding in his parents’ native Yemen, has used his website to encourage Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. He has emerged as a prominent al-Qaeda recruiter and has been tied by U.S. intelligence to the 9/11 hijackers, the suspects in the November shooting at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, and the December attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner bound for Detroit.
For U.S. officials, al-Awlaki is of particular concern because he is one of the few English-speaking radical clerics able to explain to young Muslims in America the philosophy of violent jihad.
Al-Awlaki’s direct role in al-Qaeda — if any — remains unclear. Sunday’s video was produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s media arm, which touted the recording as its first interview with al-Awlaki. Al-Qaeda could be trying to seize upon his recruiting prowess by featuring him.
