An al Qaeda Web site is urging its followers to create “sleeper cells” in Lebanon to undermine Hezbollah, its Islamic rival whose popularity has been surging with the resilience of its fighters facing superior Israeli forces in the southern part of the country.

Some experts think the Web site might be a trick of Western or Saudi intelligence, who would benefit from a deepening rift between al Qaeda and Hezbollah.

Al Qaeda is a violent gang of Sunni Muslims who are centered in Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden accuses the Saudi royal family of despoiling the faith through their alliance with the United States.

But al Qaeda has largely had to watch from the sidelines as Hezbollah, which embraces the Sh’ia brand of Islam based in Iran, has drawn adulation and recruits from Muslims the world over.

“Supporting Hizballah and its victory will be a big problem for us,” said the Sawt al-Jihad Web site, “because this would mean an increase in the popularity of the rejectionists as a force that defeated the Jews, and the number of supporters for Hizballah will increase.”

The CIA’s Open Source Center, which translated the proclamation, described Sawt al-Jihad as a “ well-known jihadist outlet on the Internet affiliated with al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.”

The Web site said it hoped that both Hezbollah and Israel would be “exhausted” by the battle in Lebanon.

“There should be no rush to enter this battle,” it advised its Sunni followers. “We must wait until both sides are exhausted. The battle is now at its most intense point between the rejectionist [Shia] and the Jews and it is a rare opportunity to have both sides exhausted.”

It said its followers in Lebanon should “establish Jihadist sleeping cells” to establish and gather “housing, maps, large financial support, and other basic known fundamentals for jihad without ignoring the jihadist group already there such as those in the Palestinian camps.”

The latter was a reference to Hamas, the Sunni militants who share control of the government in the Palestinian territories of Israel.

Meanwhile, the Web site advised followers to take up “humanitarian relief for Sunni Muslims in Lebanon in every way possible in order to win over the population and establish a wide public support base because this is an easier way of wining the hearts of the public.”

During relief work, al Qaeda partisans should be “preaching and educating people about their religion and pointing out the danger of the rejectionists [Shia],” the Web site said. “It is important to have a pure Sunni presence against the Jews and not to leave the area uncontested.”

The al Qaeda operatives should “show pictures of the squads of death and betrayal in Iraq so that they see the hell that the Sunnis would be under if they ever allowed the rejectionists [Shia] to dominate Lebanon,” the Web site said.

A recent taped address by bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri called for Islamic unity in the fight against Israel.

But Daniel Benjamin, a former White House National Security Council aide and co-author of “The Next Attack” noted that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by a U.S. missile in June, targeted Shiites, as much as U.S. forces, for death.

“Osama bin Laden professes to be a big tent guy — and the last Zawahiri tape on Lebanon echoes that,” Benjamin said. “but much of his Sunni-based movement loathes the Shia — witness Zarqawi.”

Mia Bloom, a terrorism expert at the University of Cincinnati, agreed.

“Last week seemed to portend a possible healing between the camps,” she said. “but al Qaeda will never appeal to Shiites in southern Lebanon.”

Former CIA officer and Middle East hand Robert Baer followed suit, noting that Hezbollah leader “Nasrallah has come out and denounced bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, saying that his Hezbollah Shi’a jihad calls for liberating Islamic lands, not massacring Americans.”

But Baer, a veteran CIA operator whose exploits were dramatized earlier this year in the George Clooney movie “Syriana,” had doubts about the authenticity of the Web site.

“I think if anything, al Qaeda wants in,” he said. “Everyone wants in on Lebanon, to fight the real enemy — Israel. Somehow I don’t see al Qaeda fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Author Peter Bergen, one of the few Westerners to interview bin Laden before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said the Web site looked “kosher” to him, but said he was expecting clarification on al Qaeda’s position from bin Laden himself in “the next days.”

The Web site invited readers to send “their suggestions and feedback” to “contactus.arabform.com.”

To some, the invitation smacked of an old-fashioned police sting.

“I would not be surprised if it were a Saudi Intelligence operation,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Rich Reynolds, who spent most of his career in the Middle East.

The Saudis, he pointed out, have a strong interest in undermining their Iran-backed Shi’a rivals in Lebanon with such a message.

At the same time, the Saudi intelligence service’s dirty tricksters might be able to gather the names of any al Qaeda enthusiasts who answer the Web site’s invitation to readers for feedback.

“It furthers their position on Lebanon,” Reynolds said of the Web site, “and may reveal who are the al-Qaeda-in-Saudi supporters.”

A Saudi spokesman could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Jeff Stein can be reached at jstein@cq.com.