Al-Qaeda in Iraq said on Thursday that it fired a barrage of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel this week in a rare claim by the group of a direct attack against the Jewish state.
The claim, on an Islamic Web forum where al-Qaeda in Iraq often posts statement, could not be independently verified.
Israel blamed Tuesday's rocket attack on a radical Palestinian militia and bombed one of its bases near Beirut. Israeli officials would not immediately comment on the al-Qaeda statement.
The US State Department said it could not immediately confirm the claim.
"A group of al-Qaeda lions planned ... a new attack on the Jewish state. The brothers accomplished their mission as it was planned," the al-Qaeda statement said.
It said the al-Qaeda fighters fired 10 rockets into northern Israel.
In Tuesday's attack, a volley of rockets landed in a residential neighborhood of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona, causing damage but no casualties.
Israel responded with airstrikes against a base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a pro-Syrian Palestinian militia. The PFLP-GC denied firing the rockets, as did other Palestinian factions and the Shiite Hezbollah guerrilla group.
Major-General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, the head of Israeli army intelligence, said on Thursday that the rockets used in the attack were Russian-made Katyushas sold to Syria several years ago.
Without referring to the claim, Zeevi-Farkash told Israel's Channel 10 TV, "Today al-Qaeda is turning its focus to the heart of the Levant -- Syria, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, the countries around us, and to Israel."
Though it frequently rails against Israel in its propaganda, al-Qaeda has rarely launched direct attacks against it.
also see story:
International team to review results of Iraqi elections
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying