"The occupying forces are about to submit to painful blows," said one of the men in the tape

DOHA, August 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Five masked men identifying themselves as Iraqi resistance members vowed on Sunday, August 17, more attacks against U.S.-led occupation forces, claiming 300 soldiers are killed by resistance fighters every month.

"The occupying forces are about to submit to painful blows," said one of the men pictured in a videotape broadcast by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite news channel.

The spokesman of the group, named the "Islamic patriotic Iraqi resistance movement", said the group would "step up its strikes," as other members appeared carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

"This resistance is born out of our Islamic faith and represents all Iraqis," read the statement, calling on all Muslims to "offer moral support to the Iraqi resistance because it is not lacking in men or weapons."

The spokesman also said that American soldiers are hiding their inflicted casualties” in Iraq for political reasons, saying that 300 American soldiers are killed every month in Iraq – a far large number than that announced by the U.S. military.

“They are shrouding reports of casualties and damage in secrecy lest they should take its toll on coming U.S. elections or raise anger against the White House,” he said.

“Resistance turned conflict to the White House, leaving the American president plunged into a large impasse as his apparatuses are still unable to find the identity of resistance fighters,” the spokesman contended.

The group repeated that resistance was borne out of “the principle of driving the occupier out”.

The spokesman in the tape said that resistance attacks are “legal as they come in accordance with international laws and conventions”.

Sixty American soldiers have been killed in guerrilla-style attacks since major combat operations in Iraq were declared over on May 1.

The attacks are blamed by Washington on loyalists to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

But observers said that the attacks were also carried out by unorganized resistance groups, whose members could be mostly ordinary Iraqis furious over the continued U.S. military occupation and provocations and the lack of security still plaguing the oil-rich country since U.S. and British forces rolled into Baghdad on April 9.

The tape was aired one week after the same group vowed more anti-U.S. resistance operations in Iraq, while denying any link with Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.