DUBAI, Sept 2: The number two in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, urged Americans on Saturday to convert to Islam in a video that showed a converted US national sought by the FBI.

In the 48-minute video, Zawahiri presented ‘Azzam the American’, and urged the ‘American people in particular and westerners in general to listen to the extremely serious words of our brother Azzam the American concerning their fate’.

“Our brother Azzam the American is trying to lead his own from obscurity towards the light. Listen to him,” Zawahiri said.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US national Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 28, ‘is being sought in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States’.

The video was released a day after Gadahn’s birthday, and ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

The last time Zawahiri appeared in a video was on Aug 5, when he announced that key players from the Egyptian group Jamaa Islamiya were joining Al Qaeda, a claim the group denied the next day.

The video shown on Saturday was entitled ‘An invitation to Islam’ and produced by Al-Sahab, which specialises in recordings for militant groups. —AFP