Al-Qaeda has made another threat toward the US.

The head of al-Qaeda's Yemen cell, in an Internet statement, has called for new attacks on US interests.

Said al-Shihri made the audio statement to say attacks should be launched against American interests everywhere.

The al-Qaeda official, a former inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Saudi Arabia and Egypt should be especially wary, as they had preserved the interests of Jews and Christians by providing oil and access to the Arabian Penninsula.

In his statement he praised Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been accused of trying to blow up a passenger jet over the US city of Detroit on Christmas Day.

Abdulmutallab has admitted he was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen.