Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged Somalis in a new audio tape today to topple the new President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.

"The war which has been taking place on your soil these past years is a war between Islam and the international crusade," bin Laden said, according to the group's own English translation of the tape.

"These sorts of presidents are the surrogates of our enemies and their authority is null and void in the first place, and as Sheikh Sharif is one of them, he must be dethroned and fought,"

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the tape, titled "Fight on, champions of Somalia" but the voice sounded like that of Bin Lade.

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