'Jihadist' issues Christmas bombing threat

The recording, titled "The Zero Hour has arrived" and directed to "the unbeliever and Christian countries celebrating Christmas," lasts one minute, three seconds and bears the voice of a member of the Shumukh al-Islam forum, said the US-based monitor.

The speaker, according to SITE, said that failure to heed warnings to cease bloodshed in Muslim countries would result in attacks.

"Your (Christmas) fireworks will act as an alarm for the time of our devices to blow up -- devices that we, not Santa Claus, are going to offer to you as gifts, to turn your night into day and your blood into rivers," he said in a translation provided by SITE yesterday.

The threat, coming from a single individual on a forum reportedly linked to the Al-Qaeda network, is reminiscent of last year's failed Christmas bombing of a US airliner by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who wore explosives stitched to his underwear, in a plot attributed to Al-Qaeda.

It also comes amid Nigeria's warning that Al-Qaeda -linked militants were likely planning attacks during the Christmas holiday, and the accidental death of a suicide bomber in Stockholm two weeks ago who apparently intended to kill Christmas shoppers.