Al-Qaeda threatens US with 'catastrophic consequences'

The leader of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda warned that the US would face "the most dire consequences" if it executed the Boston bomber.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Screenshot from video

"If the American government kills our brother, hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, or any other Muslim prisoner, it will bring the most dire consequences to American citizens," Reuters quoted al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri as saying in a nearly 60-minute video yesterday. Western powers "are criminals and they only understand the language of violence," he added.

Dressed in a white robe and sitting before a green velvet curtain, Zawahri also suggested exchanging Western hostages for Muslim prisoners. Zawahri, a former doctor, joined al-Qaeda and has been its leader since Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber in 2013. Photo: Reuters

The video, which also features images of Tsarnaev, appears to have been filmed at an al-Qaeda base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan were the two bombers at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three people and injuring more than 260. It was the largest terrorist attack in the US since 9/11. The US sentenced Tsarnaev to death by lethal injection last year.

Tsarnaev is currently being held at the maximum security prison in the US in Florence, Colorado.

According to VNE