NEWS

Egypt blasts: Al Qaida group claims responsibility

July 23, 2005 16:13 IST

A group citing ties to al Qaida claimed responsibility for Saturday's Sharm el-Sheikh bombings that killed at least 62 people, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.

The group, calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, said that its "holy warriors targeted the Ghazala Gardens hotel and the Old Market in Sharm el-Sheikh."

The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately verified.

The brigades were one of two Islamist groups that claimed responsibility for the Oct. 7 bombings at Sinai Peninsula Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people.

"Your brothers, the holy warriors of the martyr Abdullah Azzam Brigades succeeded in launching a smashing attack on the Crusaders, Zionists and the renegade Egyptian regime in Sharm el-Sheikh," said the statement.

"We reaffirm that this operation was in response to the crimes committed by the forces of international evil, which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya."

"We declare it loud and clear that we will not be frightened by the whips of the Egyptian torturers and we will not tolerate violation of our brothers' land of Sinai," the statement added in an apparent reference to tourists who travel from neighbouring Israel to Sinai Peninsula for holidays.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades was also one of two groups that claimed responsibility for a Cairo bombing and shooting on a tourist bus in late April.

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