[Cerchio] Al Qaeda calls for attacks on US

'Al-Qaeda' calls for attacks on US
>From correspondents in Dubai
March 24, 2004

A STATEMENT purportedly issued by an Islamic militant group that claims to be
part of al-Qaeda calls on Palestinian militants to attack America, saying the
United States is their "real enemy", and it accuses Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat of being a sellout.

The statement urges Palestinians to avenge Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed
Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, in Gaza yesterday.

It was signed the "Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri (al-Qaeda)", the group that
claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombings of March 11 and the
November suicide bombings of British and Turkish Jewish targets in Istanbul.

It was not possible to verify that the statement came from al-Qaeda. US and Arab
analysts have previously expressed skepticism about claims of Abu Hafs al-Masri
as it has also claimed responsibility for power failures in North America and
Britain.

The statement appeared on an Islamic website that has published claims of
responsibility allegedly from al-Qaeda-affiliated groups during the past two years.

Such claims have been posted for strikes in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and
the Madrid train bombings.

Palestinian militants should know "your real enemy is the tyrant of the age:
America", the statement said.

"With American money, Sheik Yassin was killed; with American weapons, Sheik
Yassin was killed; with American political propaganda, Sheik Yassin was killed,"
it said.

Israel used US-made Apache helicopter-gunships when it fired missiles at Yassin
as he was leaving a mosque on Monday after dawn prayers. Israel has defended the
killing by accusing Yassin of having planned terrorist attacks that killed
hundreds of Israelis.

"Until when are we going to bury our heads in the dust, and overlook the real
enemy of the Islamic nation, which is America?" the statement asked.

"Let us unite to hit this Zionist crusader snake, this despotic enemy," the
statement added.

The statement urges Palestinian militants not to believe "the criminal Yasser
Arafat and his hypocritical associates, who are trying to sell Palestine to the
Jews under the slogan of truce or conciliation".

As an example, it refers to the talks between Arafat's Palestinian Authority and
radical Palestinian factions that Egypt has hosted in a bid to reach a
cease-fire in the conflict and promote the peace process.

Abu Hafs al-Masri was the alias of Mohammad Atef, a top lieutenant of al-Qaeda
chief Osama bin Laden who was killed in a US airstrike in Afghanistan in 2001.
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