WASHINGTON, July 20,2010: A Saudi-born American citizen may be behind the new online English magazine published by terror outfit al-Qaida, US officials claimed.

Samir Khan, who left the US in 2009 and now lives in Yemen, is responsible for several of the online blogs, Herald Sun quoted unnamed US officials as telling Fox News.

The online magazine Inspire was posted by the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch connected to US-born cleric Anwar al Awlaki,linked to both the Fort Hood massacre and the failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square.

Intelligence officials became aware of Khan several years ago when he began publishing English translations of al-Qaida propaganda and videos produced by other militant groups.

Inspire, an anti-US blog, publishes articles with titles such as “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom”.

Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to the US when he was seven, had earlier started another blog called “Inshallahshaheed” in 2004.

A slick new Al Qaeda magazine written in English to lure U.S. jihadists may be the work of a former New Yorker with an eye for graphics - and a lust for American blood.

Intelligence officials see chilling similarities between a militant blog Samir Khan produced and the Internet-based magazine Inspire.

Khan landed on intelligence radar in 2007, when he was 21, after posting an Osama Bin Laden screed to the blog he maintained from his parents’ basement.

The blog boasted crisp graphics, an easy familiarity with American culture and attitudes, and a pipeline to hard-core rhetoric.

Fast forward to last month, when Al Qaeda put out Inspire, with the message that U.S. military action in the Arab world must be avenged.

The packaging spooked experts with its potential for recruiting Western youth. It also seemed familiar to those who track militants, like the Jawa Report blog.

Officials suspect Khan is involved with Inspire, because its content is similar in tone to work he published in his previous blog and posts on other Islamist sites.

If Khan is behind Inspire - with articles like “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” - he’s joined a trend that has intelligence officials worried.

Terrorist hunters have seen an increase in militants preaching jihad in English, and a corresponding uptick in terror plots involving U.S. citizens, experts said.

“The two trends surfaced at about the same time, 18 months ago: more U.S. citizens, Americans, involved in terror plots, and more hard-core jihad Web sites sending out their messages in English,” said Silber.