(AP/USA Today) Al-Qaeda in Iraq said 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 statement, on an Islamic Web forum where al-Qaeda in Iraq often posts statements, could not be independently verified. Without referring to the claim, Maj. Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, the head of Israeli army intelligence, said Thursday in an interview with 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." The group's branch in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been battling U.S. and Iraqi forces for two years and leading a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings in that country. But al-Qaeda in Iraq has been expanding attacks to other parts of the Arab world. It claimed to have carried out a Nov. 9 triple suicide bombing against hotels in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that killed 60 people.
2005-12-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive