One of Saudi Arabia's most wanted al-Qaeda militants has called on Muslims to kill Americans everywhere and vowed attacks against Arab leaders allied to Washington, according to a video carried on an Islamist website.
A masked man identified as Abdulaziz al-Muqrin in a video on the Dirasat website, said Americans had yet to feel the "real fires of battle". In an apparent reference to a guerrilla uprising in Iraq, he said Washington faced another Vietnam.
"O mujahideen, fight the Americans everywhere and fight the Americans with all your might and capabilities. Terrorise them as they have terrorised your brothers," the man said.
There was no independent confirmation of the identity of the figure whose brown cloth mask obscured all but his eyes.
"O mujahideen this is your day, your jihad, and this is your enemy occupying your land, turning it into bases to fight Islam and Muslims, and controlling apostate agents. So fight them until . . . you only see blood and body parts as they have done to your brothers in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq in their battles in the Muslim peninsula," the man said.
The website has in the past carried statements purporting to be from Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, widely believed to be behind the September 11th attacks on the United States, and other officials of the militant network.
Meanwhile, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most influential Islamist groups in the Middle East, called on all Iraqis yesterday to rally round resistance to US forces until they defeat the occupation.
"We hail Iraqi leaders who have rejected the occupation and call on the whole Iraqi people . . . to form a single front against the occupation, embrace the heroic resistance and strengthen the fabric of national unity until the occupation is defeated," the organisation said in a written statement.
It said Arab and Muslim governments and peoples should provide the Iraqi insurgents with material, moral, political and economic support.
"This is the least of the duties of Islam," the statement said. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is illegal in Egypt but tolerated within limits, said it was reminding the Iraqi insurgents to observe Islamic rules and not allow anyone to mutilate corpses or display them in public.
The brotherhood, a Sunni group, welcomed the fact that Iraqi Shi'ites have joined Sunnis in opposing the occupation by force.
It accused US forces of using the same methods it said were used by the Israelis in the Palestinian territories, such as attacking mosques and killing people who are praying, and preventing the wounded from reaching hospitals for treatment.