Al Qaida’s leader in Iraq today vowed his fighters will never rest until they have blown up the White House and reached Jerusalem.

In an audio tape made available on militant websites, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir claimed to be winning the war in Iraq and said the US President was “stupid”.

He praised the Republican defeat in the US midterm elections as “reasonable”, and claimed the al Qaida army has 12,000 fighters in Iraq, ready to die for their cause.

Also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Muhajir became the leader of al Qaida in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by the US military in June.

The al-Qaida leader reached out to the Muslim world and said his group was winning faster than expected in Iraq.

The US president’s policy had enabled the militant group to achieve their goal of fighting more Americans, said the al Qaida leader.

“We haven’t had enough of your blood yet,” he told the US.

He called on Mr Bush to remain “steadfast in the battlefield” so al Qaida would have more opportunities to fight his soldiers.

“We call on the lame duck (Bush) not to hurry up in escaping the same way the defence minister did,” he said, referring to the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as US Defence Secretary following the Democrats’ victory in Midterm elections.

“They are getting ready to leave, because they are no longer capable of staying,” the al Qaida leader said.

“Remain steadfast in the battlefield you coward,” he called on the US President.

“We will not rest from our Jihad until we are under the olive trees of Rumieh and we have blown up the filthiest house – which is called the White House,” al-Muhajir said.

The US military today announced the deaths of three soldiers and one Marine in Iraq, bringing the number of US troops killed in the country this month to 24. At least 2,845 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber in an explosives-rigged car killed six Iraqi soldiers he’d lured from behind a checkpoint this morning. Around the country, 55 Iraqis in all were killed today in violent incidents or found dead.

In Rawah, the Iraqi army arrested al-Qaida commander, Abu Muhayyam al-Masri, a defence ministry official said.

The overall leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is an Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri, although it wasn’t clear if there was any connection between the men.

Two deputy leaders of the Rawah cell, Abu Issam al-Libi, or “the Libyan,” and Abu Zaid al-Suri, “the Syrian,” were also arrested, along with nine other fighters, said the official,

The official said al-Suri confessed to being responsible for organising at least one suicide bombing in Baghdad. A large quantity of weapons was also seized in the raid, he said.

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