World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Al-Qaida's new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Muslims to kidnap Westerners to exchange for imprisoned jihadists.(AP Photo/IntelCenter, File)

The leader of al-Qaida has urged Muslims to kidnap Westerners to exchange for imprisoned jihadists, including a blind cleric serving a life sentence in the United States for a 1993 plot to blow up New York City landmarks.

In an undated two-hour videotape posted this week on militant forums, the Egyptian-born jihadist Ayman al-Zawahri also urged support for Syria's uprising and called for the implementation of Islamic Shariah law in Egypt.

He said that abducting nationals of "countries waging wars on Muslims" is the only way to free "our captives, and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," the Egyptian cleric.

"This is the only language which they understand," said al-Zawahri, appearing in his customary white turban and robe. "We will keep on seizing more ... until we free our captives."

There was little clue to his whereabouts from the video, shot against a backdrop of brown curtains.

He periodically releases video and audio statements. Two weeks ago, an audio recording by him urged holy war over an amateur anti-Islam film produced in the United States. He released a video on this year's anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, claiming that his warriors "defeated America in Iraq".

Freeing Abdel-Rahman has become a rallying cause for Islamic militants and jihadists. A group named after him claimed responsibility for a June assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, which caused no casualties. A bigger attack on Sept. 11 claimed lives of four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador in Libya, Chris Stevens.

Relatives and supporters of Abdel-Rahman have been holding a sit-in next to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for months. Egypt's new Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, under pressure from leading Egyptian jihadists recently released from prison, vowed to push for his release.

Al-Zawahri appeared to be following Egypt's debates over the country's political future, as he called upon ultraconservative clerics in Egypt to ensure clear mention of Islamic Shariah law in the new constitution.

Members of Egypt's Salafi trend have been pushing the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which Morsi hails, to make the role of Shariah explicit. Liberals fear that the Islamist groups will insert language that can be used to curb freedom of expression and the rights of women and minorities.