Zarqawi: Bin Laden ordered Katyushas

"Attacks are start of 'blessed' effort to hit Zionist enemy in own territory."

By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH, JPOST STAFF
katyusha hizbullah 298.8 (photo credit: AP [file])
katyusha hizbullah 298.8
(photo credit: AP [file])
In a video broadcast on an internet web site, the leader of the anti-US insurgency in Iraq, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, claimed Monday that Osama bin Laden ordered the latest firing of Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into Israel last month. According to Israel Radio, Zarqawi said that the Katyusha attacks against the "spawn of monkeys and pigs" were the beginning of a "blessed" effort to hit the Zionist enemy deep in its own territory. Last month Al-Qaida in Iraq took responsibility on their website for the Katyusha attacks. The announcement claimed that the organization launched ten rockets into Israel. Six Katyushas landed in northern Israeli cities, including three in Shlomi and three in Kiryat Shmona, where two apartments took direct hits. It was the first time that Al-Qaida took responsibility for attacks on Israel taking place from Lebanon. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan used the incident to deplore the attacks and called on both sides to avoid an escalation in violence. "The rockets caused serious damage to property but fortunately there were no casualties," a spokesman for Annan said in a statement responding to the Tuesday evening attack. Annan called on the Lebanese Government "to extend its control over all its territory, to exert its monopoly on the use of force, and to put an end to all such attacks." He called on all parties to respect fully the Blue Line which marks the Israeli withdrawal and to avoid any actions that could lead to an escalation.