In the message aired by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, number two in the Al-Qaeda terror network, urged Muslims to force Westerners out of their lands by attacking them and emulating the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide hijackings in the United States.

“O Muslims, muster your resolve and hit the embassies of America, England, Australia and Norway, their interests, their companies and their employees ... Set the ground ablaze under their feet ... Kick these criminals out of your homelands,” said the voice.

“Do not allow the Americans, British, Australians, Norwegians and other Crusaders, the killers of your brethren in Iraq, to live in your countries and benefit from their resources.”

“Learn the lesson from your 19 brethren who attacked America with their planes, in New York and Washington, wreaking on it unprecedented havoc from which it is still reeling,” Zawahiri said in a reference to the Sept. 11 attacks that struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“The Crusaders and Jews understand only the language of killing and blood. They can only be persuaded through returning coffins, devastating interests, burning towers and collapsed economies,” the voice intoned.

Zawahiri, whose remarks appeared to have been made during the US-led war on Iraq which led to Saddam Hussein’s ouster last month, lashed out at Arab countries he said helped the US-led military campaign.

Muslim rulers had been “unmasked” by granting the United States facilities to attack Iraq and hosting troops of the US-led coalition, he said, naming several Arab countries.

“Here is Kuwait (hosting) huge armies marching (on Iraq) from its territory, while the campaign’s command is based in Qatar, Bahrain hosts the Fifth Fleet and warships sail through Egypt’s (Suez) Canal,” he said. (He also added Saudi Arabia - editor).

As to Yemen, “Crusader ships are refueling from its ports” and “Crusader armies have deployed in Jordan, where batteries of Patriot missiles have also been set up, to protect Israel.” And “after all this, they profess in all hypocrisy to oppose the war on Iraq,” Zawahiri said.

Bin Laden’s lieutenant reassured Iraqis that they were not alone, predicting glad tidings for them.

“You are not alone in the battle. Your mujahedeen brethren are lying in wait for your enemies,” Zawahiri said, addressing the Iraqi people.

“The mujahedeen in Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya and in the heart of America and the West are inflicting various kinds of death on these Crusaders.”

“God willing, the coming days will bring you heartening news,” he said.

The tape was aired amid warnings that new terror strikes were likely, specifically in the United States and Saudi Arabia, where suicide bombers hit expatriate residential compounds early last week.

The United States, Britain, Canada and Germany have temporarily closed their embassies in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the May 12 Riyadh bombings which left 34 people dead, including nine bombers. Australia, whose foreign minister was in Riyadh yesterday, has not followed suit.

The Riyadh outrages, which were followed by a series of similar attacks in Morocco, have been blamed on Al-Qaeda, which is also believed to have carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

The United States on Tuesday raised its alert level to orange, the second-highest level.