Osama threatens Americans in new audio message

A new audio message purportedly from Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has emerged in which he addresses U.S. citizens. The news channel al-Jazeera broadcast the tape in which bin Laden issued a threat to kill any Americans taken captive if the alleged 9/11mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is executed. The authenticity of the tape has yet to be established.

"The day America will take such decision [to execute Mohamed and any others] it would have taken a decision to execute whoever we capture," the voice on the tape said. The voice continued, saying that US president Barack Obama was "following the footsteps of his predecessor", a reference to George W. Bush, the former US president.

"The politicians in the White House were practicing injustice against us and still they are. Especially by supporting Israel in its continuous occupation of Palestine. They used to think that America across the oceans is protected from the rage of the oppressed until our reaction was loudly heard at your home on 9/11 with God's help," the voice says in the recording.

The last audio recording attributed to bin Laden was released on January 24, 2010. In that tape he claimed responsibility for the attempted attack on an airliner on Christmas Day and vowed there would be further attacks on the US unless President Obama took steps to resolve the Palestinian situation [AJE].

tvnewswatch, Beijing, China