Footage of a bomb blowing up a US soldier provides a dramatic visual backdrop to the warbling chants of an Iraqi singer whose anti-occupation video CDs are on on sale alongside Arabic pop in Baghdad.

Singer Sabah Hisham al-Janabi praises Iraqi guerrillas, who have killed hundreds of US soldiers and says the insurgents have given President Bush sleepless nights. ?Oh Bush, what got you into this mess?,? asks Janabi. ?In the city of Falluja you drank from the glass of death,? he proclaims to a slow drum beat.

?Those who die for the nation?s cause, we celebrate them for their martyrdom,? he warbles in another song, accompanied by scenes from ?Black Hawk Down?, a film about a disastrous 1993 US military mission in Somalia. Standing in front of an entire shelf devoted to Janabi CDs, music shop assistant Ahmed Ali, attributes the singer?s popularity to his anti-occupation stand. ?Iraqi society is emotional and these songs stir up their feelings,? he said. Another vendor said the songs were designed to provoke anti-occupation sentiment.

Music vendors say Janabi?s popularity has grown with rebellions in the Sunni city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, and the southern city of Najaf, a city holy to the country?s majority Shi?ite Muslims. They say sales have been on the rise. Footage of the apparent aftermath of an Iraqi insurgent attack on a convoy accompany another song, showing the torn and burnt metal skin of an armoured car on the back of a transporter. ?People want to see the truth,? Ali said.

Janabi employs a style of recitation traditionally used to invoke God and figures from Islamic history. US-led authorities in Iraq have outlawed media suspected of inciting violence against the forces occupying the country. But US officials were not immediately able to say if Janabi?s recordings had been banned.

Despite Janabi?s growing popularity, Baghdad music vendors say his CDs still only sell half the number of some Arab pop stars.