Confident Saddam Urges Iraqis To ‘Evict Invaders’

"Our belief is strong that God will grant us victory," said the voice.

The speaker called on Iraqis to safeguard the properties of the state and his toppled Baath Party until "things return to normal".

"The losses that befell our people … as a result of foreign aggression are huge," and it is therefore "incumbent on those in charge of the people to save what can be saved," he said

This particularly applies to "the human being, the most precious thing who must be saved from his enemy and from himself."

He Also pressed the need to "salvage" Iraqis, including any who "strayed" from the right path, with the exception of those who "betrayed the people and nation" by collaborating with the US occupiers.

"We should salvage our sons and brethren, even those among them who strayed, except those who betrayed the people and nation by collaborating with the criminal occupiers," he said, using the royal We, commonly used in the Arabic language.

‘Confident’

But unlike the five other tapes allegedly from the deposed leader, Saddam said he felt "bitterness for what happened".

"We bear historic responsibility," for what happened, he said, warning that any one collaborating with the U.S. occupation forces is a "traitor".

The tape renews challenges facing the U.S. forces’ efforts to hunt down Saddam, and further undermines their credibility among the Iraqis.

"With a defiant, confident tone, the taped message comes more articulated and well written – leaving possible that he may live in a secure place," Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, told al-Jazeera.

As for Saddam’s call for Iraqis to keep the state properties, it is seen as "an evidence by him to send the message clear that he is still in power and the situation in the country is secure," Zafer Al-Ani, a political analyst, told the Qatar-based satellite channel.

The U.S. military blames Saddam for the series of attacks on American soldiers, that left at least 52 of them dead since U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to the Iraq offensive on May 1, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) count.

But some self-proclaimed resistance groups claimed responsibility for the attacks which they vowed would continue till the American forces pack up and leave.

With the lack of security and basic services left anti-American sentiments on the rise among local inhabitants – who are also calling for an end to occupation of their oil-rich country and a precipitous set-up of a national representative government.

Two American soldiers were reported killed and several others wounded Thursday, July 31, in separate attacks in Baghdad bringing four the number of U.S. fatalities in the past 24 hours.

The new tape comes just three days after Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel broadcast a tape in which a speaker said to be Saddam paid tribute to his sons Uday and Qusay, killed by U.S. forces on July 22.

U.S. intelligence has deemed previous tapes to be probably authentic at a time when the former strongman continues to elude U.S. forces who have stepped up raids across Iraq in an attempt to capture him.

Washington is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture or proof of death of Saddam. The man who betrayed his sons is being paid a $30 million bounty.

On Tuesday, July 29, U.S. forces netted a Saddam bodyguard and two of his associates in the Iraqi leader’s hometown of Tikrit.

U.S. troops killed late Sunday, July 27, five Iraqi civilians in a raid on a house in the wealthy Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, where they believed the ousted Iraqi president was holing up.