Al-Qaeda leader calls on Muslims to strike inside US

Al-Qaeda’s leader has marked the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by calling on Muslims to strike inside the United States, with attacks, big or small, using any opportunity they can to “bleed” America financially.

In an audio message released two days after the 12th anniversary of the attacks, Ayman al-Zawahri said America is not a “mythic power” and that the mujahedeen — Islamic holy warriors — can defeat it with attacks “on its own soil”.

Al-Zawahri, the successor to Osama bin Laden, used the anniversary to argue that the United States can be defeated by targeting its economy.