Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned Europe on Wednesday of a "reckoning" for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, US monitoring groups said.
In the message, addressed to the "intelligent ones" in the EU, bin Laden said that publishing the "insulting drawings" was a greater crime than Western forces targeting Muslim villages and killing women and children.
And the "reckoning for it will be more severe," a transcript of the message provided by the Virginia-based IntelCenter quoted him as saying.
Referring to a series of cartoons published in Danish newspapers, the al-Qaeda leader also said: "If there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions."
Cryptically, he said that Muslims' response to the insult would be "what you see, not what you hear."
The five-minute audio message, titled "May our mothers be bereaved of us if we fail to help our prophet," was posted by As-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media arm, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
The audio track with English subtitles is heard over a video image of bin Laden holding an AK-47 assault rifle.
IntelCenter chief Ben Venzke said bin Laden's message was "a clear threat against EU member countries and an indicator of a possible upcoming significant attack."
Protests have raged in a number of Muslim countries since 17 Danish dailies on Feb. 13 reprinted a drawing -- originally printed in 2005 -- featuring the Prophet Mohammed's head with a turban that looked like a bomb with a lit fuse.
Meanwhile in Rome, Italian security officials were treating bin Laden's new accusations against Pope Benedict as a serious threat, Ansa news agency said yesterday, quoting a source at the interior ministry's anti-terrorism unit.
An interior ministry spokesman said security officials would meet today to examine the al-Qaeda message, in which bin Laden said offending cartoons of Mohammad were part of a "new crusade" involving Pope Benedict.
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