Bin Laden urges Islamist fighters to free Iraq

            Death toll rises to 60 in Baghdad car bombing

            Bin Laden warns Iraq Shiites after 62 killed

    WASHINGTON, July 1 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Saturday accused al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden of using the media to justify violence that is hampering the new Iraqi government's work.

    "These terrorists offer nothing in their ideology and messages beyond future fighting, conflict and misery," a White House official said in a statement.

    In an audio message posted on the Internet Saturday, bin Laden endorsed a new al-Qaida leader in Iraq, and warned Shiites against collaborating with the United States in fighting Sunni insurgents.

    In the message, the second in two days and which coincided with another car bombing in Baghdad, bin Laden also warned against sending international forces to Somalia.

    The White House official said that Washington was reviewing the Internet message to determine its authenticity and analyze its contents.

    "If authentic, the tape demonstrates yet again that bin Laden and al-Qaida continue to use the media to justify their dark vision and war against humanity," he said.

    "The Iraqi people and the international community will continue to tell these enemies of humanity that their dark vision and atrocities are unwelcome interventions," said the official.

    The United States is offering 25 million dollars for the head of bin Laden, whose whereabouts are unknown.

    The CIA authenticated a message by bin Laben released on Friday in which he warned that Jihad, or holy war, would go on in Iraq despite the killing of al-Qaida's chief in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Enditem