In an Internet broadcast, the Al Qaeda leader also warned the world community not to respond to America by sending international troops to Somalia.
DUBAI: Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Shi'ite majority on Saturday of retaliation over attacks on Sunni Arabs and that his group would fight the United States anywhere in the world.
Bin Laden, making his second Internet broadcast in two days and one of his strongest comments on sectarian divisions in Iraq, also warned the world community to stay out of Somalia, where Islamists have fought their way to power in Mogadishu.
"We will fight (foreign) soldiers on the land of Somalia ... and we reserve the right to punish them (countries that send troops) on its land and anywhere possible," said the speaker on the audio tape, sounding like the Saudi-born militant.
"We warn all of the countries in the world not to respond to America by sending international troops to Somalia."
A US intelligence official, declining to be named, said there was no reason to doubt it was bin Laden on the tape, which was posted on an Internet site used by Islamists.
Bin Laden, a Sunni Muslim from a school that sees Shi'ite Muslims as heretics, said the Sunni Arab minority in Iraq was being annihilated.
"Unarmed people among Mesopotamia's Islam folk are being subjected to an annihilation campaign at the hands of the gangs of hatred and treason ... in the government of (Nuri) al-Maliki."
He said Shi'ites could not "violate" Sunni cities in Iraq and at the same time expect their own areas to remain "safe from retaliation and harm".
Iraq's south is dominated by Shi'ites who took power in the country after the 2003 US-led war while central and northern cities he listed in his tape are chiefly Sunni areas where insurgents have been active against the Shi'ite-led government and US-led forces.
The United States has often accused al Qaeda of stoking tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis in Iraq to try to trigger a civil war. It has put a $5 million bounty on the head of Zarqawi's successor.
Bin Laden endorsed Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also believed to have the name of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US air strike on June 7.
"We have been informed that our mujahideen brothers at (Iraq's) al Qaeda have chosen Abu Hamza al-Muhajir as their emir ... I pray God that he will be the best successor of the best predecessor," he said.
Bin Laden ordered Muhajir to focus the fight "on the Americans and their allies" and advised him not to break away from the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella of Sunni militant groups led by al Qaeda.
"Dispute is evil as a whole and (being part of) a group is mercy," he said.
He urged Muslims to send men and funds to support fighters in Iraq. "Muslims should rescue their brothers in Mespotamia with money and men to deter the aggression of the crusaders and apostates," he said.
Muslims should punish the leaders of political parties that allied with the United States after "they expel the crusader armies" from Iraq, he said.
Another purported Bin Laden tape on Friday praised Zarqawi and vowed that al Qaeda would fight US forces and their allies everywhere.
A US counter-terrorism official, who declined to be named, said analysis of the recording confirmed it was "the voice of Osama bin Laden". Saturday's broadcast was his fifth in 2006.
Bin Laden, widely considered the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has eluded US forces who have been hunting for him and former Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Afghanistan.
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