NICOSIA - The Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi said Sunday it received a claim of responsibility from the al-Qaeda terror network for the Istanbul synagogue bombings that also implicitly warned of attacks in the United States.
"Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigades struck a mortal blow after having kept Jewish intelligence agents under surveillance and determined that five of them were in two synagogues in the centre of Istanbul," al-Qaeda said in an Arabic-language statement e-mailed to the London-based newspaper.
The Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigades - al-Qaeda, named after its military chief killed in US operations in Afghanistan in November (eds: correct) 2001, implicitly warned of car bombings in the United States.
Saturday's car bombs, which targeted two synagogues in the heart of Istanbul, killed at least 23 people and injured some 300 others.
"We say to the criminal Bush and his valets among the Arabs and foreigners, in particular Britain, Italy, Australia and Japan: you will see the cars of death with your own eyes in the centre of the capital of tyranny," it said.
"They will not be limited to Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul, Djerba, Nasiriyah, Jakarta," the statement said, reeling off a list of previous deadly bombings in its warning to US President George W. Bush.
The statement also drew up a list of demands of the US and its allies, as well as calling for militants to join the anti-US resistance in Iraq.
"This is a golden opportunity for them (the allies) to understand the message and withdraw from the coalition of the Crusades against Islam and Muslims," it said.
"If they have not understood the language of words, that of the cars of death could explain it to them," said the statement.
It said al-Qaeda demanded the United States "put an end to the war they are waging against Islam and Muslims in the name of the war on terror and withdraw from all Muslim lands desecrated by Jews and Americans, including Jerusalem and Kashmir."
The statement called for the release of all the Guantanamo Bay detainees captured in Afghanistan and Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, the spiritual guide of Egypt's Jamaa Islamiyaa who is jailed in the United States.
It called for the network's "brigades" to go to Iraq "to help the brigades already there" in fighting the US-led occupation forces.
The statement also defended the November 8 suicide bombing, which Saudi authorities have blamed on al-Qaeda, of a housing compound in Riyadh that killed 17 people, most of them Arabs.
"The Riyadh compound was inhabited by Arab translators working for American intelligence," it said.
"We have warned Muslims more than once that they must not go near the places where the infidels are to be found, and we renew our warning," the statement said.
"It is not permitted to mix with these infidels until they have put a halt to their Crusade."
Al-Qaeda claims Nasiriyah bombing
A London-based Saudi newspaper, Al-Majallah, said Sunday it has received a statement from Al-Qaeda warning of an attack in Tokyo and claiming responsibility for last week's anti-Italian bombing in Iraq.
Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, purported to be an Al-Qaeda leader, warned the Japanese against sending troops to join the US-led coalition in Iraq, in an e-mail received by the Saudi weekly.
"If they want to destroy their economic power and be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah, let them come to Iraq," he said. "Our strikes will reach the heart of Tokyo."
A day after an anti-coalition suicide bombing in southern Iraq that killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis, Japan last Thursday toned down an earlier pledge to send troops to Iraq by the end of this year.
Japanese Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba has since said that Tokyo remains committed to aiding with the reconstruction of Iraq, but the timing of a deployment of Japanese troops depends on the situation.
Ablaj also claimed the strike on the Italian police post in Nasiriyah on behalf of Al-Qaeda.
"Our strikes ... will be painful, and what we did to the Italians in Iraq, against their command base in Nasiriyah in the south of the county, is an example," said Ablaj, who often communicates by e-mail with Al-Majallah.
He also renewed threats against the United States and Israel.
"Let America and Israel mourn their dead from now, as well as the destruction which they will suffer," the statement warned. "The Jews and Americans will never be safe so long as we are alive."
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