The statement, signed by an Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, said Monday’s attack in Islamabad was carried out to fulfill the promise of Osama bin Laden to exact revenge over the reprinting in Danish papers of a cartoon of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

The attack killed six people, including a Danish citizen. It caused widespread destruction and demonstrated the vulnerability of the Pakistani capital to attack by Islamic extremists.

The authenticity of the statement, which was posted on a Web site frequently used by Islamic militants, could not be independently verified. It was signed by Al Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed and dated Tuesday.

Al-Yazeed warned that if Denmark fails to apologise for the cartoons more attacks will follow and Monday’s blast will “only be the first drop of rain.”

The attack is but a “warning to this infidel nation and whoever follows its example.” Denmark “published the insulting drawings” and later “refused to apologize for publishing them, instead they repeated their act,” the posting said.

It said the bombing was carried out by an Al Qaeda martyr whose last will and testament will soon be made public, and thanked Pakistani jihadists for helping prepare and execute the plot.

Denmark officials have already said they suspect al-Qaida was behind the attack. Pakistani officials were not immediately available to comment on the purported al-Qaida claim of responsibility.

Ben Venzke of IntelCenter, a U.S. group which monitors al-Qaida messages, said al-Qaida could target embassies and diplomatic personnel, possibly in Pakistan, from other countries where the cartoons also were published.

Venzke said Norway, the US and all European Union member countries, including Denmark, were most at risk.

Pak body backs Deoband fatwa against terror

A Pakistani religious party has endorsed a ‘fatwa’ against terrorism issued by Darul Uloom, a leading Islamic seminary in India. The Deoband madrassa issued the decree last week in New Delhi during a meeting attended by thousands of clerics and students who vowed to root out terrorism from society. “We fully support the anti-terrorism fatwa issued by the madrassa. They declared the edict according to the existing circumstances,” Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s NWFP President Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan told the Daily Times. Khan said Deoband was an educational, religious and spiritual institution for them and as such “we endorse its anti-terrorism fatwa”.

However, Khan noted that his party, which is led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, had issued an anti-terrorism fatwa long before the Deoband madrassa.

He said his party had convened an ‘ulema’ convention on April 17 last year and issued a fatwa declaring suicide bombings and all kinds of terrorism as “haraam” or prohibited in Islam and against the law of the land.