Al Qaeda-linked group claims Baghdad blast

8.10am

DUBAI - A group headed by suspected al Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in Baghdad on Monday that killed 13 people, five of them foreign contractors.

"By the Grace of God, members of the martyrdom squadron of Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad were able to ambush a convoy of mercenary parasites in the centre of the Iraqi capital," said a statement claiming to be from the group dated Monday and posted on an Islamist website on Tuesday.

"Several cars were destroyed and the body parts of the infidels were seen flying in the air," it said. "These operations are a clear message to the Americans that their path in Muslim countries will not be as easy as they believed."

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the Arabic-language statement.

Monday's attack was the second suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital in 24 hours and coincided with a wave of assassinations aimed at the new interim government appointed to take over from the US-British occupation authorities on June 30.

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for many of these attacks.

Iraq's Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said on Monday that a foreigner had carried out the bombing.

Iraqi police said a bomber in a red four-wheel-drive vehicle set off the blast, which devastated a busy street and ripped the front off one building.

The five foreign contractors that were killed included two Britons, a Frenchman and an American. They were employees of a subsidiary of the US conglomerate General Electric or security contractors working with the company.

The US military said 10 contractors had also been wounded.

In the statement, Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad vowed to carry out more attacks against Americans in Iraq, saying their battle was "until death and would not end nor will our fire die down before the country is liberated completely from occupation".

"The Americans with all their high-tech surveillance and military might will not be able to stop what God has ordained upon them," it added.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq