Al Qaeda claims Marriott blast, reports CNN

12.00pm

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The al Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for last week's bombing of the Marriott Hotel and is promising more attacks, terror experts have confirmed for CNN.

The claim was released to al Qaeda sympathizer and Arab media sites over the weekend in an unsigned statement, CNN reports.

"This operation is part of a series of operations that Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri has promised to carry out," the statement said, referring to last Tuesday's blast at the Marriott, which left at least 11 people dead and over 100 injured.

The statement called the attack "a fatal slap on the face of America and its allies in Muslim Jakarta, where faith has been denigrated by the dirty American presence and the discriminatory Australian presence."

CNN says Al-Zawahiri is Osama bin Laden's closest adviser, as well as his doctor. He has made frequent appearances at bin Laden's side, usually in a trio completed by the late military committee commander Mohammed Atef, who was killed in November 2001 during an air strike in Afghanistan.

In the statement, al Qaeda made a familiar list of demands - including an end to the war on terror, the release of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and that the United States and its allies leave Muslim lands, CNN said.