Al Qaeda head urges Holy War over anti-Islam film...but stops short of claiming responsibility for Libyan embassy attack.

Ayman al-Zawahri praised as 'honest and zealous' demonstrators who breached the U.S Embassy in Cairo and attackers who stormed the U.S. 'embassy' in Benghazi in violence linked to the film.

Zawahiri praised last month's assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four diplomats but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

The Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has said a film made in the United States mocking the Prophet Mohammad showed Washington was waging a 'crusader Zionist war' against Muslims and he called for more protests outside American embassies.

Like in other messages released by al Qaeda's Yemeni and North African branches last month, Zawahiri praised last month's assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four diplomats but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

In the recording, posted on Islamist websites on Friday, he called on 'free and distinguished zealots for Islam" who attacked the consulate and protested outside other American embassies to "continue their opposition to American crusader Zionist aggression against Islam and Muslims'.

Ayman al-Zawahri the leader of Al Qaeda has urged Muslims to wage holy war against the United States and Israel over a film that insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad

The recording appeared on the Mujahedin al-Ansar website which carries statements from al Qaeda leaders.

Zawahiri said U.S. authorities 'permitted the film in the name of personal freedom and freedom of expression' but failed to practise those values in its treatment of Muslims imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden (left) sits with his one- time adviser and successor Ayman al-Zawahri in 2001

Ayman al-Zawahri a;sp praised the praised  'honest and zealous' demonstrators who breached the U.S Embassy in Cairo and attackers who stormed the U.S. 'embassy' in Benghazi in violence linked to the film.

The American ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others died in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Libyan city.

The amateur film 'Innocence of Muslims' was made by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula an Egyptian-born American citizen.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration condemned the short film, made privately and amateurishly in California, as reprehensible but said it could not be banned without violating the U.S. constitutional right to free speech.

Attack: The violence at the U.S. embassy on September 11 caused the deaths of the American ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American personnel

Attack: Four U.S. citizens died in the raid on the consulate in Benghazi, including Mr Stevens

Inferno: Armed attackers dumped jerry cans of diesel fuel in the building and set ablaze part of the exterior of the consulate's exterior

The Guantanamo detention camp was set up after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to hold non-American captives suspected of involvement with al Qaeda, the Taliban or other Islamist militant groups. Of the 779 men who were held there, 167 remain.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born preacher who became al Qaeda's chief after the death of Osama bin Laden last year, also criticised Obama after his Democratic Party pledged at its pre-election convention to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Losses: U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, left, and former Navy SEAL Glen Doherty, right, were killed during the September 11th attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi

Gone: Diplomat Sean Smith, left, and Tyrone S. Woods, right, were also killed in the melee

He said that decision and Obama's prayers at Jerusalem's Western Wall, made during a 2008 visit, showed Muslims faced a 'crusader Zionist war' led by the United States.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state they seek. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its eternal, indivisible capital.

In September al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the group's North African affiliate, praised the Benghazi attack and urged Muslims to kill more U.S. envoys.

Earlier last month, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), its Yemeni wing, called for more protests and said the Benghazi attackers had been partly motivated by the death of an AQAP leader in a U.S. drone strike.

In hiding: Filmmaker Mark Basseley Youssef (center, escorted from his home on September 15 by Los Angeles County Sheriff's officers) was arrested after the release of his film, on charges he violated his probation.