A senior leader of the Islamic State militant group has praised the deadly terror attack on Paris, and urged the attack to continue as long as it took for the "terrorists" to be eliminated.

"Allah willing, this will be the last terror attack on our land. Our people will be safe, and Allah is with us," Anwar al-Awlaki said in an interview with the BBC's Middle East editor James Reynolds.

The US-born cleric urged the jihadist group to continue to wage war in Syria and Iraq while they were under the control of US forces.

Speaking of the killing of 130 people at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, al-Awlaki said that "the Islamic State are not defeated, and are not defeated in the face of the crusader armies of the west."

He added: "The struggle will continue for as long as the terrorists are in power, and until Allah grants their victory."

Al-Awlaki's interview with Reynolds was taped as the US launched airstrikes against the militants in Syria and Iraq.

The video, which was broadcast live on the BBC, came after a week of intense air strikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria.

President Donald Trump told Fox News: "We're not going to sit back and let somebody like that be able to commit these acts. We're going to destroy that."

He also announced a $100 million (£63 million) fund to combat Islamic State, and said his administration would "work very closely" with countries "who share our goal of defeating Islamic State."

Al-Awlaki, an al Qaeda propagandist and outspoken critic of the US, also addressed the Charlie Hebdo attack as a "call for action."

Al-Awlaki, who has been considered the leader of the Islamic State since 2011, told Reynolds