Southern California native 'Azzam the American' went from convert to al-Qaeda spokesman

The videos started in 2004. The speaker on the tape wore a head scarf that covered everything, but his eyes. He identified himself as "Azzam the American" and spoke for an hour, warning of the impending violence that would wash US streets with blood.

Almost a year later, he emerged again, listing Los Angeles and Melbourne as new targets for terrorist attacks. "Don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," he said.

Initially only his voice was recognisable, but by the time he made his third video in 2006, he had dropped his disguise. Azzam the American - or Azzam al-Amriki - was Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a Southern California native who had stepped onto the world stage as a spokesman for al-Qaeda.

The White House confirmed on Thursday that Gadahn was killed in a US operation in Pakistan in January.

He had ascended into al-Qaeda's inner circle, meeting with Osama bin Laden and self-proclaimed September 11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Two of the videos in which he appeared also featured al-Qaeda's No 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Dropping out of American society in the late 1990s, he travelled to Pakistan, attended training camps in Afghanistan and aligned himself with senior al-Qaeda officials.

He initially worked as a translator but grew to become a critical propagandist, valued for his ability to speak to the American people in a familiar idiom.