The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV said Al-Qaeda in North Africa region claimed Thursday the killing of an American aid worker who was shot dead earlier this week in Mauritania's capital. The satellite TV station conveyed it had received an audio statement from al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb in which it said 39-year-old Christopher Ervin Leggett died Tuesday for allegedly trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

"Two knights of the Islamic Maghreb succeeded Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. to kill the infidel American Christopher Leggett for his Christianizing activities," the group said.

According to the AP, Leggett was shot several times by at least two unidentified gunmen in a Nouakchott street, witnesses said. Legget grew up in Cleveland, Tennessee, and taught at a center specializing in computer science and languages in El Kasr.

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)