DUBAI: Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged Algerians in a video released on Islamist websites Wednesday to follow the example of Libyans and revolt against their leaders.

He also attacked military rulers in his native Egypt for maintaining close ties with Israel and doing nothing to back the Arab uprisings that brought down Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January and Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak in February.

“Oh lions of Algeria! Look at your brothers in Tunisia and Libya when they cast their leaders into the dustbin of history,” he said. “So, why don’t you revolt against your despot?” he added, referring to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Algeria, which shares a long border with Libya, has so far not seen a popular protest movement like those that swept through other Arab countries.

Its neighbor Morocco held a referendum on constitutional amendments in an apparent effort to appease protesters and stave off a bigger movement.

“The Muslim nation across the world expects you to deliver a model of jihad and struggle by opposing the corrupt dictators,” Zawahri said, addressing Algerians.

Zawahri was named by the Islamist group to succeed Osama bin Laden after U.S. forces ended a decade-long worldwide hunt by killing him in an operation in Pakistan in May.

Al-Qaeda has tried to wage war on the unpopular rulers over the past decade through creating cells that use suicide attacks on foreigners and government installations and officials.

Zawahri, an Egyptian surgeon by training, also praised August’s militant attack in southern Israel and said Egypt’s ruling military council had done nothing to stop Israel bombing Gaza afterward or back Arab uprisings generally. He also urged the Egyptians to keep up pressure against the Israeli embassy in Cairo, which protesters stormed in September after Israel killed five Egyptian border guards during its Gaza operation, causing the ambassador to flee.