WORLD Networks air tape said to be by Saddam
Wording was similar to a July 4 tape, but the stations said the tape was new.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Two Middle Eastern television channels broadcast today what they said was a new audio tape by ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The voice on the tape could not be confirmed as Saddam's, but journalists familiar with the fallen dictator said it sounded like him. Al-Jazeera broadcast a tape July 4 that CIA analysts said was "most likely" the voice of Saddam.
"I appeal to you, O Iraqis, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, Shia or Sunni, Christians or Sunnis, it is your duty to expel the aggressor invaders from our country," the tape released today said, according to a transmission by Lebanon's Al Hayat-LBC channel.
It purportedly quoted Saddam as delivering instructions for resistance to the U.S. and British forces.
"Unify your ranks and act as one hand," the voice said. "Boycott the occupying soldiers. ... Act and do not let the occupying forces settle down in your land," according to Al Hayat-LBC.
"He who favors division over unity, and acts to divide ranks instead of unifying them, is not only a foreign occupier but he is also the enemy of God and the people," Saddam said, according to the tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera satellite television, which is based in Qatar.
The wording on the tape broadcast today was similar to the July 4 tape, but both Al Hayat-LBC and Al-Jazeera said the tape was new.
An Al-Jazeera producer said today's was the first broadcast of its tape.
"It is a new tape, other than the one that we aired" Friday, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said he could not say how or when today's tape was received.
Al-Jazeera said Friday's tape was played to it over the telephone, which helped to explain its poor quality.
The tape broadcast by Al Hayat-LBC was about 15 minutes long but the sound quality was so poor that it was extremely difficult to distinguish what the speaker was saying.
The CIA analysts said that the bad quality of Friday's tape prevented them from being certain it was Saddam.
Mortar attack
In Iraq, insurgents fired mortar rounds at a U.S. supply base north of Baghdad, and American forces arrested at least 12 Iraqi suspects in a counterattack, the U.S. military said today. There were no reported casualties.
The mortar attack occurred late Monday night at a base near Balad, 55 miles north of the capital, said Spc. Nicole Thompson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Baghdad. She said U.S. forces subsequently caught 12 of the suspected attackers.
Meanwhile, witnesses said a U.S. military vehicle was attacked early today in Baghdad. U.S. military personnel surrounded the area, and an Associated Press photographer saw the charred spot of earth where the attack occurred. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information about the incident.
The violence came after a deadly 24-hour period that saw three U.S. troops killed in Baghdad. Despite the worsening guerrilla warfare, the U.S.-led administration called two new city councils to order -- one in the southern Shiite city of Najaf and the other in the chaotic capital.
The administration also announced an initial economic agenda, including establishment of an independent Iraqi central bank and plans to rid the country of bank notes bearing the image of Saddam.
Americans' deaths
In the latest slayings of U.S. troops, a roadside bomb killed one soldier traveling in an Army convoy Monday, and a second American was shot to death in a Sunday night gunbattle in the troubled Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Azamiyah, the military said. Both soldiers belonged to the Army's 1st Armored Division, the Germany-based unit occupying Baghdad.
Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was shot and killed drinking a soda in the shade at Baghdad University.
A British soldier was wounded in a sniper attack in Basra, southern Iraq, while on patrol Sunday night, the Ministry of Defense said Monday. The soldier was in stable condition at a British army field hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds in a leg, the British government said.
Six British soldiers were killed June 24 in the southern Shiite town of Majar al-Kabir, 180 miles south of Baghdad.
Despite increasing attacks against Americans, no extra troops are needed in Iraq now, the war's retiring commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview Monday marking his last day in uniform.
In Florida, U.S. Central Command officially changed leaders in a ceremony Monday, with Arabic speaker Gen. John Abizaid taking over for Franks. Abizaid is a Lebanese-American who was one of Frank's two deputies at Central Command.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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