DUBAI, Dec 20: Osama bin Laden slammed the US-led invasion of Iraq as “a new crusade” against Muslims, in an audiotape attributed to him by the Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel on Saturday.

However, a CIA official said in Washington that the tape appeared to be an old one that was previously broadcast.

“It appears to be the same audio that was released (previously),” the official said.

“This war is a new crusade against the Islamic world,” he said, referring to Iraq, according to Al Arabiya, which aired parts of the tape interspersed by commentary.

“It is a fateful war for the entire (Islamic) nation, with dangerous repercussions and negative effects on Islam and Muslims whose scope only God knows,” the voice said.

“Here’s America now screaming and staggering before the whole world ... seeking succor from the lowliest people, begging (to enlist) mercenary soldiers from east and west,” said the voice in an apparent reference to US efforts to expand the US-led coalition in Iraq.

“What you did to America comes as no surprise ... for you are the scions of those great knights who carried Islam to the east, up to China,” the man purported to be Osama bin Laden said, seemingly alluding to guerrilla attacks on US forces in Iraq.

Al Arabiya did not give a date for the tape, but it appeared to be several months old.

The man purported to be Osama bin Laden lashed out at “collaborator governments formed by America,” citing as an example that of Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister who stepped down on September 6, suggesting that the tape was recorded before then.

“It is no secret that any government formed by America is a collaborator, traitor government, like all the governments of the region, including those of (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai and Mahmud Abbas, which were set up to thwart jihad (holy war),” the voice said.

“The roadmap (a US-backed Middle East peace blueprint) is no more than a new link in the chain of the conspiracy aimed at ending the blessed intifada. The jihad should continue until an Islamic government that rules on the basis of Allah’s law (Islamic law) is set up (in Palestine).”

The remarks were similar to those attributed to him in an audiotape aired by Qatar’s Al Jazeera television on Oct 18.

The Osama tape came just a day after Al-Jazeera aired a similar tape purported to be from his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he said the Americans were beginning to stagger under the blows of Al-Qaeda.—Reuters