The head of an Al-Qaeda-dominated group in Iraq offered to give US troops a month to pull out free of attack in an audiotape posted on the Internet and demanded an answer within two weeks. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi also charged that Washington had attempted to open communications through Saudi intermediaries but said he had rebuffed the overture, in the voice recording whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.
"We are offering you the opportunity to withdraw your troops in complete safety and we are expecting your response within two weeks," said the voice purporting to be that of Baghdadi, leader of a self-proclaimed Islamic emirate in western and north-central Iraq that is dominated by Al-Qaeda supporters.
"We appeal to President George W. Bush to seize this historic opportunity which should allow your troops to pull out in safety," it said.
Bush has faced intense political pressure to overhaul his Iraq policy, following the rout of his Republican party in mid-term elections, rock-bottom approval of his management of the Iraq war and mounting US combat deaths.
A policy review by the Iraq Study Group, a bi-partisan panel, recommended that all frontline US troops be withdrawn by early 2008.
But Bush made clear Wednesday that he was opposed to any precipitate withdrawal from Iraq and that in the short term US troop numbers might even rise.
"I want the enemy to understand that this is a tough task, but they can't run us out of the Middle East; that they can't intimidate America," he said.
The voice recording also charged that US officials had made contact with the Al-Qaeda front organization through Saudi intermediaries in a bid to open up communication but said that the overture had been rebuffed.
"The giant has begun to collapse and is seeking to negotiate through various parties, particularly through its agents," it said.
"It conveyed to us through the Saud family (the royal family in Saudi Arabia), the dictators of the (Arabian) peninsula, its desire (to negotiate), claiming already to have sat down with all parties apart from us.
"But we told it: 'We don't negotiate with those who have shed the blood of our children.'"
US officials have expressed readiness to open up communications with insurgent groups in Iraq but have always excluded those with links to Al-Qaeda.
