1. In the audio released Monday, bin Laden said the insurgency in Iraq was gaining strength despite "barbaric and oppressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam." × × ×THE AMERICAS PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico –– A gas explosion Sunday at a coal mine in northern Mexico trapped 66 miners below ground and left 12 hospitalized with burns and broken bones, officials said.

2. In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, the speaker said: The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam.‘‘ By using that language to describe Saddam, bin Laden appeared to be denying assertions by the Bush administration that the former Iraqi leader had ties to al–Qaida – ties that were given as one rationale for invading Iraq.

3. In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, the speaker said: "The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam." By using that language to describe Saddam, bin Laden appeared to be denying assertions by the Bush administration that the former Iraqi leader had ties to al–Qaida _ ties that were given as one rationale for invading Iraq.

4. In drawing the comparison to American military behaviour in Iraq to that of Saddam, the speaker said, "The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam." The tape‘s release in January came days after a US air strike in Pakistan that was targeting bin Laden‘s deputy, Ayman al–Zawahri, and reportedly killed four leading al–Qaida figures, including possibly al–Zawahiri‘s son–in–law.

5. In drawing a comparison between US military behaviour in Iraq and that of the Saddam era, he said: "The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam." Bin Laden said the Iraq conflict had "become a point of attraction and recruitment of qualified forces". "What‘s more, the Mujahideen, by the grace of Allah, have been able to penetrate time after time all the security procedures undertaken by the oppressive countries of the alliance as evidence by what you have seen, in terms of bombings in the capital of the most important European states." He also mocked the US president, George Bush, for declaring in April 2003 that major conflict in Iraq had ended.