Al Qaida claims responsibility for Danish embassy attack in Pakistan

Islamabad: A Web posting late Wednesday purportedly by Al Qaida claimed responsibility for the suicide attack against Denmark's embassy in Pakistan that left six people dead.

The statement said that Monday's bombing in Islamabad was carried out to fulfill the promise of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden to exact revenge over the reprinting in Danish papers of a cartoon of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The statement, carried on a Web site frequently used by the Islamic militants, said the attack fulfilled the promise of 'Sheik Osama Bin Laden - of responding to the insulting drawings'.

It added that the attack came in defense of the religion and honor of Muslims and warned that if Denmark doesn't apologize for the cartoons, more attacks would follow.

The statement was signed by an Al Qaida commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abul-Yazid, and dated Tuesday, but its authenticity could not immediately be verified.

It said the attack was carried out by an Al Qaida martyr and thanked Pakistani jihadists who helped prepare and execute the plot.

Many suicide bombings in Pakistan are believed to have been planned in its semiautonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border, where Al Qaida and Taleban militants have found sanctuary and which are the focus of peace efforts.

Denmark officials had said earlier that they suspected Al Qaida was behind the bombing.