"Only the actions of the faithful who struggled and fought can evict the invaders," Saddam

BAGHDAD, Aug 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A new tape purportedly recorded by ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to drive out foreign troops, as officials in neighboring Jordan said the former leader's two daughters were offered asylum along with their nine children.

"Only the actions of the faithful who struggled and fought can evict the invaders," said the voice on the taped message, aired on Al Jazeera television and dated July 28.

"Our belief is strong that God will grant us victory," said the voice.

The speaker called on Iraqis to safeguard the properties of the state and his toppled Baath Party until "things return to normal".

"The losses that befell our people ... as a result of foreign aggression are huge," and it is therefore "incumbent on those in charge of the people to save what can be saved," he said

This particularly applies to "the human being, the most precious thing who must be saved from his enemy and from himself."

He Also pressed the need to "salvage" Iraqis, including any who "strayed" from the right path, with the exception of those who "betrayed the people and nation" by collaborating with the US occupiers.

"We should salvage our sons and brethren, even those among them who strayed, except those who betrayed the people and nation by collaborating with the criminal occupiers," he said, using the royal We, commonly used in the Arabic language.

'Confident'

But unlike the five other tapes allegedly from the deposed leader, Saddam said he felt "bitterness for what happened".

"We bear historic responsibility," for what happened, he said, warning that any one collaborating with the U.S. occupation forces is a "traitor".

The tape renews challenges facing the U.S. forces' efforts to hunt down Saddam, and further undermines their credibility among the Iraqis.

"With a defiant, confident tone, the taped message comes more articulated and well written – leaving possible that he may live in a secure place," Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, told al-Jazeera.

As for Saddam's call for Iraqis to keep the state properties, it is seen as "an evidence by him to send the message clear that he is still in power and the situation in the country is secure," Zafer Al-Ani, a political analyst, told the Qatar-based satellite channel.

The U.S. military blames Saddam for the series of attacks on American soldiers, that left at least 52 of them dead since U.S. President George W. Bush declared an end to the Iraq offensive on May 1, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) count.

But some self-proclaimed resistance groups claimed responsibility for the attacks which they vowed would continue till the American forces pack up and leave.

With the lack of security and basic services left anti-American sentiments on the rise among local inhabitants – who are also calling for an end to occupation of their oil-rich country and a precipitous set-up of a national representative government.

Two American soldiers were reported killed and several others wounded Thursday, July 31, in separate attacks in Baghdad bringing four the number of U.S. fatalities in the past 24 hours.

The new tape comes just three days after Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel broadcast a tape in which a speaker said to be Saddam paid tribute to his sons Uday and Qusay, killed by U.S. forces on July 22.

U.S. intelligence has deemed previous tapes to be probably authentic at a time when the former strongman continues to elude U.S. forces who have stepped up raids across Iraq in an attempt to capture him.

Washington is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to the capture or proof of death of Saddam. The man who betrayed his sons is being paid a $30 million bounty.

On Tuesday, July 29, U.S. forces netted a Saddam bodyguard and two of his associates in the Iraqi leader’s hometown of Tikrit.

U.S. troops killed late Sunday, July 27, five Iraqi civilians in a raid on a house in the wealthy Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, where they believed the ousted Iraqi president was holing up.

Jordanian Refuge

In the meanwhile, Saddam's daughters have fled to Jordan, winning protection from Amman with the agreement of Washington.

"Raghad and Rana Saddam Hussein and their nine children arrived in Jordan on Thursday on board a Jordanian plane from Syria," a relative, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

"The two daughters were in Syria where they had fled two weeks after the fall of Baghdad, or around the end of April."

Asked about the fate of their mother, Sajida, Saddam's wife, the relative said: "We have no news about her."

But another relative said that Sajida was still in Syria.

"She fled Iraq with her daughters and their children for Syria but decided not to accompany them to Jordan on Thursday as long as the fate of her husband remains unknown," the relative said, also requesting anonymity.

A royal palace official said Thursday King Abdullah had agreed to host the sisters, whose husbands, both brothers, were killed by Saddam in 1996, "for humanitarian reasons and because of the difficult situation in their country."

The official added they had been granted Jordanian protection.

Their brother-in-law, Jamal Kamel Hassan, for his part said that he had arrived in Amman a few days ago to make arrangements for Raghad and Rana's arrival.

Amman "had asked for the green light from the Americans, who had no objections, after all the two daughters had no hand in the crimes of their father and had already fled (Iraq) in 1995," he said.

Jamal Kamel said he and King Abdullah's sister Princess Aisha al-Hussein had greeted the sisters on their arrival and added they were staying at one of the royal residences in Amman.

Raghad, 34, and Rana, 32, first took refuge in Jordan in August 1995, along with their husbands General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid, at the time industry minister, and his brother Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, who was in charge of a presidential guard.

The brothers had defected to Jordan, along with around 30 other members of the al-Majid family, and Hussein Kamel at the time made open calls for an overthrow of the Baath party regime in Iraq.

But Hussein Kamel's defection came to a tragic end. In February 1996, believing in an amnesty issued by the Baath party as well as guarantees fro Saddam's son Uday that they would be safe, the families returned to Iraq.

"When my brothers defected, I was imprisoned in Baghdad and then set free when they returned in February 1996. I saw them one day, we all dined at the house of Uday who acted as if everything was normal," Jamal Kamel said.

"The next day I went to Tikrit (Saddam's hometown) and they went back to the family residence in Baghdad, where they were killed," added Hassan, the only member of his family who did not suffer the same fate.

The two brothers, their father, their sister and her four children, and another sister and her son were all assassinated, accused of treason. Their mother was later stabbed to death.

Raghad and Rana had since been living out of the public eye with their mother in Iraq.

Saddam, hunted by U.S.-led occupation forces, has a third daughter Hala, whose husband was arrested by U.S. forces following the fall of Baghdad on April 9.