The presumptive GOP presidential nominee, citing the latest audio tape released by al-Qaida leader bin Laden' title='Osama bin Laden' class='tpstyle'>Osama bin Laden, said Sens. Barak Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., "refuse to understand what's being said and what's happening," Fox News reported Tuesday. In the tape released last week, bin Laden stressed the importance of an al-Qaida victory in Iraq.

"General (David) Petraeus (commander of U.S. forces in Iraq) is correct when he says that the central battle ground in the struggle against al-Qaida is Iraq and Osama bin Laden just confirmed that," McCain said during a town hall meeting in Chula Vista, Calif. "It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that. I don't know if its naivete or what the problem is, but it's obvious that they are dead wrong and they are wrong when they say we should leave Iraq immediately."

The Democratic National Committee responded that McCain didn't pressure the Iraqi government to take advantage of the reduced violence to resolve political differences.