AN American citizen is behind Inspire, a new online magazine published in English by al- Qaeda that is geared toward recruiting Western youth, it has been claimed.
Samir Khan, who left the United States in 2009 and now lives in Yemen is responsible for several of the online blogs, Fox News reported Monday, citing a US official.
Inspire was posted by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the branch in Yemen that is connected to American-born cleric Anwar al Awlaki, who is linked to both the Fort Hood massacre and the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in Times Square.
Awlaki uses English to get his message out in the West.
Intelligence officials became aware of Khan several years ago when he was living in North Carolina and publishing English translations of al-Qaeda propaganda and videos produced by militant Islamic groups.
Inspire, a vehemently anti-US military blog, appeared online and publishes articles with titles such as How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mum.
Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to the US when he was seven, started a blog called Inshallahshaheed, or A martyr soon if God wills around 2004.
Federal officials suspect Khan is involved with Inspire, because its content is similar in tone to work he published in his previous blog and posts on militant Islamic sites.
Publishing jihadist literature in English has been on the upswing of late, intelligence experts told the New York Daily News.
They added there has been a concomitant rise in homegrown terrorism, such as the attempted plane bombing on Christmas Day.
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