Posted on 11/17/2003 11:01:56 AM PST by knak
Nicosia: Australia has been singled out for bombing threats by a group linked to al-Qaeda as it claimed responsibility for attacks on two Istanbul synagogues.
The new threats against the US and its allies warn of a repeat of the car bombings in the Turkish city, in which at least 23 people were killed and about 300 injured.
"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," Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, the al-Qaeda linked group, said in a statement emailed to the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
"They will not be limited to Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul, Djerba, Nasiriyah, Jakarta," the statement said, reeling off a list of previous bombings in its warning to US President George Bush.
In Canberra, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said it was too early to determine the authenticity of the claim of responsibility but it was not new for Australia to be named by terrorist organisations.
"These fanatical Islamic terrorists know only too well there are some countries with the courage and determination to take them on and defeat them. Australia is one of those countries. Australia is a tough country and we're not going to be cowed by these sorts of people," he said.
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which has been identified with al-Qaeda in the past, has made claims that turned out to be unsubstantiated - it took responsibility for the August 5 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the August 14 blackout in the north-eastern US.
However, a speedy claim of responsibility by a non-Turkish group supported the contention by Turkish officials that the synagogue bombings were the work of foreign terrorists, possibly from al-Qaeda, rather than any homegrown organisation.
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade statement also drew up a list of demands of the US and its allies, and called on 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."
It said al-Qaeda demanded the US "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 Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the spiritual guide of Egypt's Jamaa Islamiya who is jailed in the US.
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 the Saudis blamed on al-Qaeda, of a housing compound in Riyadh that killed 17 people, most of them Arabs.
"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."
I love it!
What, bin Laden is driving a Corvair now?
At least it's an improvement over suitcase nukes.
Oh, so all the al Qaeda boyz are gonna buy Expeditions and drive up the price of oil and ruin our economy?
The Ford Pinto?
hahahaha.
I, for one, am terrified.
LOL... ya beat me to it.
I hate it when cheesy sequels break from the original titles.
I wonder if these guys know that they sound like a cartoon.
The survivors, anyway.
So did I. But ours was actually a pretty good car. It survived my sophomore year. That's more than I could say about most cars.
Doesn't the MIRROR hate our GUTS?
WAR ON THE WORLD!!!! When will the WORLD respond??
...and the Segway of humiliation and derision...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.