Baghdad ? The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday al-Qaida was becoming increasingly fearful over losing the support of Sunni Arabs and had begun targeting the leaders of tribal councils who have switched allegiances in favor of America.

Gen. David Petraeus made the comments a few hours before a new audiotape of Osama bin Laden emerged, warning Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against joining the councils fighting al-Qaida or participating in any unity government.

Petraeus said that al-Qaida’s fear of the councils was obvious. The councils, along with the inflow of thousands of additional U.S. troops, and a six-month cease-fire announced in August by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have led to a 60 percent decline in violence since June.

“They attach enormous importance to these Concerned Local Citizens groups, these tribes that have turned against them, and to the general sense that Sunni Arab communities have rejected them more and more around Iraq,” Petraeus told a small group of Western journalists.

“You can see this in their public statements,” he added. “They are trying to counter this and they have done so by attacking them,” which is increasingly turning Sunnis against them.

He said this shift was pushing Sunnis back into the political process they effectively abandoned after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Iraq’s Sunni Arabs boycotted the first elections in January 2005.

“It is very, very important for them to have a stake in the new Iraq,” he said of the Sunni and urged Iraq’s Shiite prime minister to reach out to the minority.

“This is about helping the Iraqi government win the hearts and minds” of the Sunni, he added. “That’s why it is so important for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to reach out to the Awakening in Anbar.”