Al Qaida says it carried out Yemen oil attacks

Sanaa: Al Qaida's wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for the September 15 attacks on oil facilities in the Arab state and vowed more strikes against the United States and its allies.

"Let the Americans and their allies among the worshippers of the cross and their apostate aides ... know that these operations are only the first spark and that what is coming is more severe and bitter," the group said in a statement posted on the internet.

The authenticity of the statement posted on a website used by militant groups could not be verified. The statement, believed to be the first posting by Yemen's branch of Al Qaida, was dated Ramadan 20, which corresponds to October 13.

A US intelligence official said analysts were working to try to verify the authenticity of the posting.

"We know there is now some sort of organisation that calls itself Al Qaida Yemen," the US official said. "We think they've been trying to get this up on a website for awhile."

Yemen had said that four bombers were killed on September 15, when security forces blew up four rigged cars before they reached oil and gas facilities in the eastern provinces of Marib and Hadarmout. A guard was also killed, a worker with Canadian oil company Nexen Inc.

Commenting on the foiled attacks, the group said: "These operations came in response to directives from our emir Shaikh Osama Bin Laden, may God preserve him, in which he ordered Muslims to hit the Western economy and stop the robbing of Muslims' wealth."

The group also said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh should "repent, return to his faith, apply Islamic law, renounce democracy, the religion of America, and abandon [his] alliance with the infidels".

"Let him [Saleh] know that his rule will not last [forever] and that God bestows his victory upon his soldiers ..."

"Let them know that our blood is not cheap. The killing of Shaikh Abu Musab Al Zarqawi will not pass without revenge ... and that the killing of Shaikh Ali Al Harthi by US missiles will not pass without revenge."