Bin Laden Urges Strikes on U.S., Allies in Mideast

A new audiotape attributed to Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden praises the attack on a U.S. Consulate in Saudi Arabia this month and encourages militants to mount strikes to prevent the United States from obtaining Middle Eastern oil.

Hours after the recording was posted on an Islamist website, the CIA concluded that there was a “high degree of confidence” that the speaker was Bin Laden, a U.S. intelligence official said Thursday.

Unlike other recent messages from Bin Laden, which were directed largely at an American audience, the recording, dated Wednesday, appears aimed primarily at Muslims in the Middle East. It calls on them to fight the United States and its regional allies.

In one segment, the speaker exhorts Muslims to support the insurgency in Iraq, saying that “targeting America in Iraq in terms of economy and losses in life is a golden and unique opportunity. Do not waste it to regret it later.”

In another passage, the man identified as Bin Laden discusses the price of oil, accusing the United States of seeking to control the region’s vast supplies and keeping petroleum prices depressed.

“Exert all that you can to stop the largest stealing operation that takes place in history,” he says, according to a U.S. government translation of the tape. “Be active and prevent them from reaching the oil, and mount your operations accordingly, particularly in Iraq and the Gulf, for this is their fate.”

The tape is the latest in a flurry of statements believed to be from Bin Laden and his top lieutenant that suggest they are mounting a more concerted public relations effort after disappearing from the airwaves for long stretches after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In late October, Bin Laden appeared on videotape discussing the presidential race just days before the election, warning Americans that their security depended on their actions toward Muslims.

The new tape is an often rambling, 74-minute address containing a mix of strident rhetoric and Koranic verses.

Bin Laden’s public statements come at a time when the U.S.-led hunt for the fugitive has largely gone cold, according to statements from Pakistani officials and information from U.S. intelligence sources.

A U.S. intelligence official said the CIA still believed that Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan’s border regions, despite speculation that he might be in one of the country’s teeming cities.

The speaker asks for “mercy on the mujahedin who stormed the consulate of the Americans in Jidda,” a reference to the Dec. 6 attack that ended with the deaths of five non-American staffers. Four assailants were also killed, and a suspect was arrested by Saudi authorities. The Al Qaeda terrorist network was blamed for the attack.

The voice on the tape refers to three of the Sept. 11 hijackers “who left holy Mecca and hit the United States on its turf,” and excoriates the Saudi royal family, calling its members “U.S.-led apostates” whose policies invite further bloodshed. At one point, the speaker warns Saudi rulers that they may be toppled.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said that the speaker apparently was Bin Laden and that the Al Qaeda leader was trying to incite further violence.

“He’s a terrorist. That’s what terrorists do,” Powell said.

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Hossam Hamalawy of The Times’ Cairo Bureau contributed to this report.