Al Qaeda has a warning for the U.S.: Don't execute Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (the Boston Marathon bomber), or there will be "gravest consequences." Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri issued this threat in a newly released hour-long video. Zawahri also said that Muslims should seek to capture or kill as many people living in the west as possible.
Tsarnaev, named in a new online video message from Zawahri, was sentenced last year to death by lethal injection for the 2013 bomb attack, which killed three people and injured more than 260.
“If the U.S. administration kills our brother the hero Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or any Muslim, it ... will bring America’s nationals the gravest consequences,” Zawahri said.
Zawahri, who became al Qaeda's leader after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, urged Muslims to take captive as many Westerners as possible, especially those whose countries had joined the "Crusaders' Campaign led by the United States".
Tsarnaev was sentenced to death last June for the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed and dozens more were injured. He's currently being held in the Florence Supermax prison, with no execution date set.
Tsarnaev's brother and co-bomber, Tamerlan, was killed in a shootout with police after a massive manhunt to locate the two brothers.