An Arabic television station broadcast an audio tape purported to be from ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein calling on Iraqis to wage holy war against occupying forces and warning of more deaths for US-led troops.
"Fighting them...is a legitimate, patriotic and humanitarian duty and the occupiers have no choice but to leave our country Iraq, the country of Arabs and Islam, as cursed losers," the speaker, who sounded like Saddam, said.
"The path of jihad and resistance is the best path under God, human kind and history and is the only path which will guarantee the expulsion of the tyrannical foreign forces from our country and grant total freedom and sovereignty to our people in their land," he said in a statement marking the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, at least two loud explosions echoed across central Baghdad after dark this evening, witnesses reported.
The US military said it had no immediate information on the cause of the blasts.
