TERROR WATCH:Qaeda Group Says It Bombed Embassy

FRANKFURT-A Qaeda operative based in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, according to a posting on jihadist Web sites, saying the attack was in revenge for the publication of cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers.There was no immediate independent authentication of the claim, a statement posted late Wednesday with an attribution at its end to Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, Al Qaeda’s leader in Afghanistan. At least six people were killed in Monday’s bombing, all Pakistanis. Denmark has sent an intelligence team to help Pakistan investigate, Reuters reported. The posting said that Denmark had never apologized for the publication of the cartoons and that the bombing was a warning to others who might contemplate similar publications. It called the embassy attack “revenge against the infidel government” of Denmark for the “degrading drawings of the prophet.” Islam prohibits any representation of Muhammad.
The caricatures were commissioned by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten and first published in 2005, setting off sometimes violent protests throughout the Muslim world. In February, after the Danish police arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent on charges of plotting to kill one of the cartoonists, 17 Danish newspapers republished the cartoons as a statement of solidarity and press freedom. That ignited a new round of global protests, and prompted a threatening audio message from Osama bin Laden on March 20.The statement claiming responsibility for the embassy attack included a quote from that audio message: “If there is no check on your freedom of words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions.”
The posting said more acts would follow unless Denmark apologized for the cartoons. It also said that the will of the Islamabad suicide bomber would be published soon.A Danish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic constraints, said Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller were emphatic that Denmark would not be cowed by terrorists. While the government has acknowledged that the Muhammad cartoons offended many Muslims, it has repeatedly insisted that it will not tamper with Danish norms of free speech.The attack on the embassy has spurred Denmark to debate its foreign policy. A vocal minority has criticized the country’s early support of the war in Iraq and its handling of the cartoon crisis, arguing it has made the country vulnerable to terrorists. The government withdrew Danish troops last year from Iraq ahead of parliamentary elections and a simmering domestic backlash against the war; it still has soldiers in Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/world/asia/06pstan.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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