Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri urges attacks on West in 9/11 speech

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to attack US, European, Israeli and Russian targets in a speech on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

SITE Intelligence Group reported that in a video released by the Al-Qaeda, Zawahiri also criticises "backtrackers from jihad", referring to former militants who changed their views in prison and called the 9/11 attacks unacceptable because innocent civilians were harmed.

The coordinated Al-Qaeda hijackings on 11 September 2001 killed nearly 3,000 people, when airliners slammed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and another crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian, became leader of Al-Qaeda following the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALS.

He is believed to be hiding somewhere in the region.