The head of an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq offered $100,000 (€72,000) for the killing of the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks over his drawing depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
He also threatened to attack major Swedish companies if Sweden did not apologise over the cartoons.
"From now on we announce the call to shed the blood of the Lars who dared to insult our Prophet... and during this munificent month we announce an award worth $100,000 to the person who kills this infidel criminal," said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, in an audiotape posted on the internet today.
Al-Baghdadi upped the reward to $150,000 if Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" and offered $50,000 for the head of the editor of Nerikes Allehanda, the Swedish paper that printed Vilks' cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body on August 19th.
"We know how to force them to withdraw and apologise, and if they don't, they can wait for our strikes on their economy and giant companies such as Ericsson, Volvo, Ikea....," said al-Baghdadi,
Aside from a few scattered protests and condemnations by Muslim countries, the reaction to the cartoon has been muted, in contrast to the violent demonstrations and harsh outcry accompanying similar images that appeared in a Danish paper last year.
Al-Baghdadi also promised a new offensive in Iraq during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In a half hour audio file, he also named the other insurgent groups in Iraq that al-Qaeda was fighting and promised new attacks, particular against the minority Yazidi sect that was recently devastated by massive car bombs.