DUBAI, Oct 18: The Al Jazeera television network broadcast on Saturday two audio tapes purportedly from Osama bin Laden vowing more suicide attacks inside and outside the United States and warning that all countries backing Washington over Iraq were targets.

The speaker on the tapes urged Iraqis to wage a holy war against American “crusaders” in Iraq until an Islamic government was set up in Baghdad.

“You should know that this war (by the US-led occupiers in Iraq) is a new crusade against the Islamic world and is a fateful war for the whole (Muslim) nation,” the speaker said.

“We, God willing, will continue to fight you (Washington) and will continue martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States until you abandon your oppression and foolish acts.”

The speaker said it was now clear US President George Bush had invaded Iraq to fulfil the Zionists’ aim of destroying Iraq’s military might and seizing its oil wealth.

“Let the unjust know we have the right to respond at any suitable time and place to all who participate in this cruel war — Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan, Italy and Muslim states, and especially Kuwait and other Gulf states.”

It was not immediately possible to independently verify the authenticity of the tapes, but the voice and style of speech were similar to Osama’s.

The tapes — one addressed to Americans and the other to Iraqis — appeared to be recent because the speaker accused former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned from his post only last month, of being a US agent.

Addressing Iraqis, the speaker said: “Do not let those blood-sucking (US) troops scare you with weapons..or with their numbers, for they have started to weaken and crumble militarily and economically and especially after the blessed day of New York.”

He said the United States had been dragged into a quagmire in Iraq and that US soldiers would be foolish to stay.

“I tell Bush: Your cries for help and pleas for mercenary troops from everywhere, even small states, have destroyed your arrogance, belittled you and revealed your weakness after you claimed to defend the whole world,” the speaker said.

He added that US soldiers in Iraq were dying in vain. “Your blood is being shed to fill the coffers of the White House gang and their arms dealers and large corporations,” he said.

At a Baghdad hotel, Mohammad Jawad said after watching the Al Jazeera broadcast: “In my opinion, Osama’s words are true, because he asked for jihad against the Americans... They came to occupy and loot Iraq.”

Last month, the Qatar-based Arabic satellite television station aired a video of Osama and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahri, marking the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and urging fighters to turn Iraq into a graveyard for US troops. —Reuters