DUBAI, 30 December 2005 — Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for firing missiles from Lebanon into Israel, according to a statement posted on a website yesterday.
“A group of lions of Al-Qaeda in Iraq launched... a new attack on the Jewish state by firing 10 Grad missiles from the Muslims’ land in Lebanon against targets in the north of the Jewish state,” it said.
“The brothers carried out the operation as planned and withdrew,” said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
Israel on Wednesday carried out an air strike against a base of a Syrian-backed Palestinian group on the southern outskirts of Beirut in retaliation for cross-border rocket attacks on northern Israel.
The latest statement was the first claim of responsibility from Al-Qaeda for an attack on Israel.
Elsewhere, another Web statement from Al-Qaeda in Iraq said it was behind the abduction of five Sudanese embassy staff, including a diplomat, and demanded Khartoum cut ties with Baghdad within 48 hours.
A video posted with the statement showed the five men identify themselves as embassy staff.
“I call on the Sudanese government to carry out the demand... to withdraw the diplomatic mission,” said a man who identified himself as Abdul-Munem Mohammed Al-Houri, the embassy’s second secretary.
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said last Friday that six Sudanese men, including the embassy’s second secretary, had been kidnapped in Baghdad.
The group said in the statement it gave “the Sudanese government 48 hours to announce in a clear way... that it was severing relations with the (Iraqi) government and closing its embassy in Baghdad”.
The captors said in their statement that if their demands are ignored, then the Sudanese hostages “will join those who preceded them in having chosen to defy the Mujahedeen on the territory of Mesopotamia.”
The statement could not be authenticated, but was posted on a main Web site frequently used by Iraqi insurgent groups.
Insurgents have often kidnapped foreigners to put pressure on their governments to break ties with Baghdad. Some foreigners have been abducted by groups seeking ransom.
