Laden warns of revenge for Iraq killings

Osama bin Laden said on Wednesday in a full Internet broadcast of a video, partly aired by Al Jazeera last week, that George W. Bush had dragged America into a quagmire in Iraq and warned of retaliation for Iraqi deaths.

In the video, posted on Web sites often used by Islamists as results from the US presidential election were being announced, bin Laden said Bush had ignored advice against waging "an unjustified war on Iraq for which there would be no end".

"The black gold (oil) blinded him and he put his personal interests above the general interests of America so the war took place, many died, American money was squandered and Bush was dragged into a quagmire in Iraq which threatens his future," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape, dated October 24.

"More than 15,000 of our people were killed and tens of thousands wounded and more than 1,000 of your people (Americans) were killed and tens of thousands wounded. Bush's hands are sullied with the blood of those on both sides just for oil and to employ his private companies," bin Laden said.

"Remember that for every action, there is a reaction," he said, adding that al Qaeda would carry on fighting the United States "until it forces it into bankruptcy".

The complete 18-minute tape was posted on the Internet after Al Jazeera aired excerpts last Saturday in which bin Laden warned of possible new Sept. 11-style attacks.

Al Jazeera did not broadcast his remarks on Iraq.

It was bin Laden's first video tape in more than a year and appeared to be a deliberate attempt to influence this week's US presidential election.

More than 850 US troops have been killed in combat in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Others have died in accidents and other non-hostile incidents.

Bush, who ordered US forces to capture bin Laden dead or alive after the September 11 attacks in 2001, vowed after Al Jazeera's airing of the video that Americans would not be intimidated or influenced "by the enemy of our country".