WASHINGTON, Oct 19: The United States on Saturday warned that terrorists could be poised to carry out new simultaneous attacks on US interests, possibly starting in the Middle East and South Asia.

The warning came as US officials were studying recent broadcast remarks attributed to Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, to coordinate anti-terrorist efforts, said the Al Qaeda tapes showed “that the United States remains their Number One target”.

In the past, US officials have criticized the broadcast of remarks attributed to Osama because they could be signalling sleeper cells elsewhere to carry out terrorist attacks.

In a statement, DHS said it has advised all state and local authorities, and some private sector groups, of “recent multiple reports” that show “terrorists may be poised to conduct simultaneous attacks in the near term”.

“Some reports indicate that a large attack could follow a series of smaller operations in the Middle East and South Asia,” DHS said. “The exact timing, targets and locations of the possible attacks are unknown.”

DHS said the attacks were anticipated against US interests “in a number of venues overseas and possibly in the United States”.

Earlier on Saturday, the Arabic language television al-Jazeera broadcast a message attributed to Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, threatening attacks on anyone backing the US in Iraq.

The speaker called the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council illegal and a “union of agents, exactly like the governments of (former Palestinian Prime Minister) Mahmoud Abbas and (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai”.

The mention of Abbas, who was appointed in July but stepped down last month out of frustration, indicated that the tape was of recent vintage.

In recent months, attacks in Iraq claimed the life of one member of the Governing Council, and dozens of other lives at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and elsewhere. Dozens of US troops have also been killed.

US officials have blamed the attacks on remnants of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s forces and foreign fighters - an allusion to Al Qaeda fanatics who have reportedly infiltrated the country. The Al Qaeda message singled out for special praise the inhabitants of the cities in the so-called “Sunni Triangle”. The Shia majority of Iraq was not mentioned.

At the end of the message the speaker assured “holy warriors” imprisoned “in the US, in Guantanamo, in occupied Palestine and in Riyadh” that they were not forgotten. Al-Jazeera also broadcast another recording labelled a second “message to the American people”, in which the alleged voice of Osama warned the US to leave Iraq or be struck by new “massacres”.

Should the tapes be found authentic, they would prove that the terrorist leader has been in the position to follow news from the outside world for at least a month.—dpa