DUBAI, July 29 (AFP) - A statement in the name of the group of alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi threatened Thursday to attack any Arab or Muslim force dispatched to Iraq as proposed by Saudi Arabia and welcomed by the United States.
"We will not stand idle if forces from any Arab or Muslim country, notably Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Egypt, are sent to Iraq," warned the "Omar al-Mukhtar Brigades" of the Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group.
The statement was posted on the Islamist website (www.islamic-minbar.com).
The Saudi proposal to send Arab or Muslim forces to Iraq was discussed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell with both Saudi leaders and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Jeddah which ended earlier Thursday.
The statement called on any troops sent by Arab or Islamic countries to disobey orders or risk being attacked.
"Our swords will be brandished against anyone who cooperates with the Jews and Christians, whoever they are. We will strike with an iron fist all the traitors who cooperate with the Zionists," the statement said.
The message was addressed to "the Saudi and Pakistani governments who are seeking to send Muslim troops to Iraq in order to please their Jewish and Christian masters".
At a joint news conference with Allawi in Jeddah, Powell had hailed what he called a "welcome idea from the Saudi government as to how to generate additional Muslim forces to participate in the work in Iraq."
He said such a force would be sent to Iraq "either as part of the (US-led) coalition or as a separate organization that would be within the framework of the coalition effort, but would be there perhaps to provide security facilities or provide protection to the United Nations."
The statement attributed to Zarqawi's group also threatened the governments of Mauritania, which has diplomatic ties with Israel, and Libya for being "subservient to their Zionist masters."
It lashed out at Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, the "despicable agent" who "submitted his nuclear program to the Americans."
In a separate message about reported threats by Jewish extremists to attack the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the group warned any such attack would prompt strikes against "all Zionist, American and European interests in the Arab world".
"Synagogues in Europe, the United States and Egypt will be reduced to ashes" if the Muslim holy site is touched, the group warned.
It said "members of the Zionist intelligence services posing as tourists" would be particularly targeted by its fighters.
Israeli media have reported that authorities fear Jewish extremists could be planning an air attack on the disputed mosque compound in a bid to derail government plans to uproot settlers from the Gaza Strip.
The Jordanian-born Zarqawi has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head and is blamed by both the Iraqi government and the United States for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq during the past 15 months' insurgency.