By ERIK SCHECHTER, NEWS AGENCIES
Al-Qaida in Iraq said Thursday it was responsible for Tuesday night's Katyusha rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona, but experts are not so sure.
"A group of al-Qaida lions planned... a new attack on the Jewish state," the statement on an Islamist Web site said. "The brothers accomplished their mission as it was planned, and succeeded in their escape."
The IDF has blamed a Palestinian faction in Lebanon for the rocket attack, and bombed a base belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
Terrorism expert Yoram Kahati is suspicious of the new al-Qaida claim, but notes that no other group has taken credit for the three Katyushas that hit Kiryat Shmona. "It needs to be looked at very carefully," he said.
On August 19, another al-Qaida group, which called itself the Abdullah Azzam Battalions, fired three Katyusha rockets from Aqaba. One of the rockets landed near Eilat's airport, another narrowly missed an American ship and the third hit a group of Jordanian soldiers, killing one. The same organization also claimed responsibility for attacks in Taba and Sharm e-Sheikh in Sinai.