An Islamist Internet site issued a statement Monday by a group close to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network which claimed to have carried out a devastating truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In the statement, which could not be authenticated, the Brigades of Martyr Abu Hafs al-Masri wrote: "The attack in Iraq was a lesson for the United States," calling the United Nations "a branch of the US State Department."
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"This holy operation killed a number of criminals ... including Sergio Vieira de Mello," the UN's top envoy in Iraq, one of the 23 people killed in the blast, said the text published on the website www.faroq.net/news. The truck bomb targeted the Canal Hotel, which housed the UN offices, and was, according to the statement: "the main centre used to make the Iraqi people hungry, with the participation of murderer Saddam (Hussein) since 1990," when the UN imposed sanctions on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions were lifted in May following the fall of Saddam's regime. The text violently attacked Vieira de Mello, saying the slain UN envoy was a "friend of criminal (US President George W.) Bush."
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In the name of Jihad, the statement said that "next winter will be full of (acts) of vengeance against the enemies of Islam." The statement was dated Aug 19, the day of the attack. The Brigades of Martyr Abu Hafs al-Masri takes its name from Mohammed Atef, a top al-Qaeda member who was killed in the US-led military campaign on Afghanistan in 2001. The statement's authenticity could not be verified. On Thursday, an Arabic television channel reported a previously unknown Iraqi group had claimed responsibility for the attack. Written in heavily symbolic and oblique language, the latest statement was signed by Brigades of Abu Hafs al-Masri and followed by the words al-Qaeda in parentheses. It referred to a previous warning issued on Aug 15 in which it said it would "exhaust and confuse" America and its "henchmen." "We meant that we would carry out such a lethal and surprising attack that the enemy will not know where, when and how we will strike," the statement said.
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"The double standard policies of the United Nations are against Arabs and Muslims. This issue does not need to be proved. It is clear like the light of the sun at midday," the statement said. Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic militant groups at the Cairo-based al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said al-Qaeda had been using Internet discussion boards to distribute statements for about six months. "The language and reference are in line with other al-Qaeda statements," he said.
| I actually tend to believe them. The day after the attack, Mullah Omar issued a statement attacking the presence of NGOs — and the Bad Guys had previously expressed the opinion that the UN is a tool of the Merkins and hit at their operations. The Afghan delegation (such as it was) to the UN while the Talibs were in power was from the Northern Alliance. The Baathists might have kinda-sorta motives for a hit on the UN, but they've more reason to pretend to be a legit resistance movement with the (forelorn) hope of eventually taking control of Iraq's UN seat again. It's much more the style of al-Qaeda, its wholly-owned subsidiaries and its allied contractors. |
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