An al-Qaida-linked group vowed to renew attacks on Europe and urged Muslims to flee once Osama bin Laden's three-month truce ends on July 15, two Arabic-language newspapers reported on Friday.
"To the European people ... you only have a few more days to accept bin Laden's truce or you will only have yourselves to blame," said the statement purported to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades which claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Spain.
Al-Qaida leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, extended a truce to Europeans if they withdrew troops from Muslim nations. He said the offer not to attack Europe would last three months.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the new statement, parts of which were published by London-based newspapers Asharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat. The dailies said the letter was dated July 1 but did not say how they obtained it.
"Muslims in the West should depart to Muslim states if they can," the letter said.
"Those who cannot should take precautions and live in Muslim areas, have enough food to last a month, find ways to protect themselves and their families, leave enough money in the house to last one month or longer and to pray a lot and put their fate in God's hands," it added.
The statement said attacks would continue until the United States freed Muslim prisoners, ended its war on Islam and until "all Muslim land, including Jerusalem and Kashmir, is cleansed of the stain of Jews, Americans and Hindus."
Several European states had rejected the truce offer, which excluded the United States and Israel. The CIA has said the voice on the tape was likely that of bin Laden, whose group carried out the September 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.
Truce or war
"I offer a truce to them (Europe) with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs," bin Laden said. "Whoever rejects this truce and wants war, we are its (war's) sons and whoever wants this truce, here we bring it."
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which aligns itself to al-Qaida, is named after Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs, a bin Laden aide killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001.
The group said those involved in the "dialogue of civilizations " had little time to convince Europe to accept the truce.
"The race now is between you, time and European governments which refused to stop their attacks against Muslims. So do not blame us for what will happen, and we apologize to you in advance if you are among those killed."
The group also said it planned attacks in Yemen to "drag America into a third quagmire after Iraq and Afghanistan."
"We tell the brigade of Abu Ali al-Harthi: The leadership decided that Yemen will be the third quagmire for Americans."
Abu Ali al-Harthi, the leader of the Yemeni wing of al-Qaida, was killed in 2002 by a missile fired by a pilotless CIA drone aircraft at his car in the Arab state which is at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.
Yemen is bin Laden's ancestral homeland and has cooperated closely with the United States to crush his network.
A March statement claiming to be from the group had called a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq after the train bombings. It told its European units to stop all operations.
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades has in the past claimed responsibility for attacks in Turkey and Iraq.
