Al Qaeda biggest killer of innocent muslims: Obama

Al Qaeda is the biggest killer of innocent muslims in the world, US President Barack Obama has said.

"I think it's important to understand that we are at war against a very specific group -- al Qaeda and its extremist allies that have metastasised around the globe, that would attack us, attack our allies, attack bases and embassies around the world, and most sadly, attack innocent people regardless of their backgrounds, regardless of their religions," Obama said yesterday in an interview to YouTube.

"Al Qaeda is probably the biggest killer of innocent muslims of any entity out there," said Mr Obama in his first ever interview to the YouTube as the US President.

"So that is our target and that is our focus. Now, they employ terrorist tactics, but we need to be clear about who our target is," he argued.

The US President said United States is having to fight terrorism on all fronts.

"We have to fight them in very concrete ways in Afghanistan and along the border regions of Pakistan where they are still holed up.

They have spread to places like Yemen and Somalia, and we are working internationally with partners to try to limit their scope of operations and dismantle them in those regions," he said