Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
By OMAR SINAN - Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - (AP) Al-Qaida in Iraq said Thursday that it fired
a barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel this week, in a rare
claim by the group of a direct attack against the Jewish state.
The statement, on an Islamic Web forum where al-Qaida in Iraq often
posts statement, could not be independently verified.
Israel blamed Tuesday's rocket attack on a radical Palestinian
militia and bombed one of its bases near Beirut. Israeli officials would not
immediately comment on the al-Qaida statement.
The U.S. State Department said it could not immediately confirm the
claim.
"A group of al-Qaida lions planned ... a new attack on the Jewish
state," the al-Qaida statement said. "The brothers accomplished their
mission as it was planned and succeeded in their escape."
It said the al-Qaida fighters fired 10 rockets into northern Israel.
In Tuesday's attack, a volley of rockets landed in a residential
neighborhood of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing damage
but no casualties.
Israel responded with airstrikes against a base of the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian Palestinian
militia. The PFLP-GC denied firing the rockets, as did other Palestinian
factions and the Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Without referring to the claim, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, the
head of Israeli army intelligence, said Thursday in an interview with
Israel's Channel 10 TV, "Today al-Qaida is turning its focus to the heart of
the Levant _ Syria, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the countries
around us, and to Israel."
Though it frequently rails against Israel in its propaganda,
al-Qaida has rarely launched direct attacks against it.
The group claimed responsibility for a November 2002 suicide bombing
of a hotel frequented by Israelis in Kenya that killed 15 people, including
three Israelis. The same day, militants from al-Qaida tried to shoot down a
chartered Israeli plane leaving a nearby airport.
The groups' branch in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces for two years and
leading a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings in that
country.
But al-Qaida in Iraq has been expanding attacks to other parts of
the Arab world. It claimed to have carried out a Nov. 9 triple suicide
bombing against hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that killed 60
people.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said he
had no information to corroborate al-Qaida's claim and instead repeated U.S.
demands that Lebanon impose security control over southern Lebanon and
disarm militias like Hezbollah and Palestinian groups.
"You have armed attacks from a territory under control of terrorist
groups on Isarel. That's unacceptable. It should be unacceptable to the
Lebanese government, it's unacceptable to the international community,"
Ereli told reporters.
Lebanon has refused to send its military or security forces into
southern Lebanon since Israel's 2000 withdrawal from the area, leaving it
open for Hezbollah fighters to control the region.
The United Nations has demanded Hezbollah and other forces be
disarmed, a demand the guerrilla group and the Lebanese government have
rejected.
CAIRO, Egypt - (AP) Al-Qaida in Iraq said Thursday that it fired
a barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel this week, in a rare
claim by the group of a direct attack against the Jewish state.
The statement, on an Islamic Web forum where al-Qaida in Iraq often
posts statement, could not be independently verified.
Israel blamed Tuesday's rocket attack on a radical Palestinian
militia and bombed one of its bases near Beirut. Israeli officials would not
immediately comment on the al-Qaida statement.
The U.S. State Department said it could not immediately confirm the
claim.
"A group of al-Qaida lions planned ... a new attack on the Jewish
state," the al-Qaida statement said. "The brothers accomplished their
mission as it was planned and succeeded in their escape."
It said the al-Qaida fighters fired 10 rockets into northern Israel.
In Tuesday's attack, a volley of rockets landed in a residential
neighborhood of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing damage
but no casualties.
Israel responded with airstrikes against a base of the Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian Palestinian
militia. The PFLP-GC denied firing the rockets, as did other Palestinian
factions and the Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Without referring to the claim, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, the
head of Israeli army intelligence, said Thursday in an interview with
Israel's Channel 10 TV, "Today al-Qaida is turning its focus to the heart of
the Levant _ Syria, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the countries
around us, and to Israel."
Though it frequently rails against Israel in its propaganda,
al-Qaida has rarely launched direct attacks against it.
The group claimed responsibility for a November 2002 suicide bombing
of a hotel frequented by Israelis in Kenya that killed 15 people, including
three Israelis. The same day, militants from al-Qaida tried to shoot down a
chartered Israeli plane leaving a nearby airport.
The groups' branch in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces for two years and
leading a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings in that
country.
But al-Qaida in Iraq has been expanding attacks to other parts of
the Arab world. It claimed to have carried out a Nov. 9 triple suicide
bombing against hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that killed 60
people.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said he
had no information to corroborate al-Qaida's claim and instead repeated U.S.
demands that Lebanon impose security control over southern Lebanon and
disarm militias like Hezbollah and Palestinian groups.
"You have armed attacks from a territory under control of terrorist
groups on Isarel. That's unacceptable. It should be unacceptable to the
Lebanese government, it's unacceptable to the international community,"
Ereli told reporters.
Lebanon has refused to send its military or security forces into
southern Lebanon since Israel's 2000 withdrawal from the area, leaving it
open for Hezbollah fighters to control the region.
The United Nations has demanded Hezbollah and other forces be
disarmed, a demand the guerrilla group and the Lebanese government have
rejected.