DUBAI (AFP) — Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden branded Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki a "traitorous apostate" in new video that threatens the Shiite Muslim majority in the violence-ravaged country.
The 81-minute documentary-style video was made public on Thursday by the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist websites.
In it, bin Laden talks of a succession of US-backed governments in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 and taunts them for failing to end the US-led occupation.
His remarks were made in a documentary style video with English subtitles called "The Power of Truth" in which bin Laden appears in still photographs and video footage.
"We've seen (Iyad) Allawi's government come and go, yet the occupier did not leave; and the (Ibrahim) Jaafari government as well, yet the occupier did not leave.
"And there is the traitorous apostate Maliki government taking the same line as the Jaafari government because it is just another face of it."
The Al-Qaeda leader, a radical Sunni Muslim, makes a reference to Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims, to which he is virulently opposed, and threatens them with violence.
"It is not possible for such a large number of southerners to participate with American and its allies in violating Fallujah, Ramadi, Baquba, Mosul, Samarra, Qaim and other cities and villages and then in exchange have their region enjoy safety from harm and reaction."
Those cities have predominantly Sunni Arab populations.
"The defenceless ones from the people of Islam in Mesopotamia (Iraq) are facing campaigns of annihilation at the hands of the gangs of hatred and treachery, which were spread over all the sensitive spots in the previous Jaafari government and are also present today in the current Maliki government."
Bin Laden says it is "obligatory for the Muslims to reach out and relieve their brothers in Mesopotamia with money and men until they have lifted from them the oppression of the Crusader and apostate trespassers."
He also warns Iraqis against "currying favor with the Crusaders and apostates," saying there is "no way to salvation for them other than holding fast to the rope of Allah."
Warning Iraqis against cooperating with their government, he says "these governments and political associations are nothing but attempts to deceive you, and the swords of these people are dripping with your blood on a daily basis.
"Iron is only blunted by iron, and who hopes to convince these apostates to refrain from fighting the people of Islam in Baghdad and its surroundings without a weapon is like a fool who tries to convince the wolves to stop preying on the sheep, which will never be.
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