Al-Qaeda leader Osama bingo Laden threatened in a new message released Thursday, to kill any Americans held captives by them if the US executes the self proclaimed mastermind of 9/11 attacks or other al-Qaeda suspects.

The 74 second audiotape broadcasted on Al-Jazeera TV shows Osama explicitly mentioning Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and is the senior-most al-Qaeda member in US custody. He is being detained at the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Mohammad was convicted with murder and war crimes related to the attacks of 9/11, 2001 in the US. Officials in Pentagon have said that they will gun for the death sentence. Four of his fellow plotters in the attack are also in custody.

“The White House has expressed its desire to execute them. The day America makes that decision will be the day it has issued a death sentence for any one of you that is taken captive,” bin Laden said, addressing Americans.

After his arrest, Mohammed professed himself as the designer of several terrorism plots and even claimed that ‘with my blessed right hand’ he has assassinated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was found beheaded in Pakistan in 2002.

In his first appearing in 2008 since his capture, Mohammed said it was his longtime wish to become a martyr, after a judge warned him that he faces death penalty for his confessed role as mastermind of 9/11 attacks.

“Yes, this is what I wish, to be a martyr for a long time,” he declared.

Although al-Qaeda doesn’t not have any American captives now, but another terrorist group called Haqqani – the Pakistan based Taliban faction closest to al-Qaeda is having American Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, whom they captured in Eastern Afghanistan in June 2009. A video of him was released in December.

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