"The gap has widened and the injustices committed by some brothers in Al Qaida have increased," Ibrahim Al Shimmari, spokesman for the Islamic Army in Iraq, said. "Our goal is to free Iraq from the American and Iranian occupation. There is a bigger Iranian occupation than the American one."

Al Shimmari reported a split between the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq, an Al Qaida-aligned umbrella group. In an interview with the Qatari-based A-Jazeera satellite television on Thursday, Al Shimmari dismissed the goals of the Islamic State of Iraq to form a caliphate.

"We don't recognize them," Al Shimmari said. "It is void. There is no state under crusader occupation. There is resistance."

[On Thursday, Islamic State in Iraq claimed the execution of 20 abducted Iraqi troops and policemen. The group, which announced the formation of an Islamic Cabinet, had set a deadline for the Iraqi release of female prisoners.]

The Al Qaida campaign against the Islamic Army has taken place over the last eight months. Al Shimmari said Islamic Army and Al Qaida moved apart after the killing of Al Qaida network leader Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Al Shimmari said Islamic State of Iraq has killed 30 members of the Islamic Army. He said Islamic State leader Abu Omar Al Baghdadi approved the assassinations.

Al Baghdadi was also accused of forcing Islamic Army fighters to surrender their weapons to Al Qaida. Al Shimmari said the Islamic Army relayed these complaints to the Al Qaida leadership.

"We have sent our advice to the brothers in Al Qaida, and we sent messages to Sheik Osama Bin Laden, the other jihad groups and all the religious scholars," Al Shimmari said.