Cairo, 14 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Al-Qaeda has purportedly called on Muslims to launch attacks in retaliation for recent desecrations of the Koran in Sweden and Denmark.

The terrorist organization said in an alleged online statement posted overnight on a militant website that the severest punishment must be meted out against everyone involved in such acts, including blowing up Swedish and Danish embassies around the world.

The authenticity of the pronouncement could not be independently verified. It had a July date.

Protesters have burnt and damaged copies of the holy book in Denmark and Sweden in recent weeks, triggering angry protests in several Islamic countries.

In the message, al-Qaeda urged Muslims in Europe to undertake what it called the "duty of revenge."

"Europe has not understood our message at Charlie Hebdo in the right way," the alleged statement posted to the website close to al-Qaeda said.

In 2015, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was the target of a deadly attack after it had published cartoons deemed offensive to Islam’s prophet Mohammed. Al-Qaeda claimed the attack.

The radical network called for "jihadi" operations to be mounted.

"We invite the ardent young people of our nation to start forming cells each made up of three persons working to discipline whoever seeks to insult our Islamic sanctities," the statement said.

In February, the United States said veteran Egyptian extremist Saif al-Adel was believed to be al-Qaeda’s new leader. Months earlier, the group's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in Afghanistan in a targeted US airstrike.

Al-Zawahiri took over in 2011 after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces at his hideout in Pakistan.

Photo: MIA archive