Jerusalem, Dec 03: Palestinian militant groups insisted today they did not want to export their fight against Israel outside the region, after a statement attributed to al-Qaeda called two attacks in Kenya a holiday greeting to "our brothers in Palestine." Spokesmen for Islamic jihad and Hamas refused to comment directly on last week's car-bombing of a hotel that killed 10 Kenyans, three Israelis and two or three suicide bombers, or the near-simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner taking off from the port city of Mombasa.

A statement posted on an al-Qaeda web site yesterday called Thursday's attacks a Ramadan greeting to the Palestinian people. US officials have called the claim of responsibility credible. Nafez Azaam said Islamic jihad's "ideology and strategy is based on fighting the occupation and liberating the Palestinian lands.

"We have no interest in transferring the battle to any field outside Palestine because our rights are here and our enemies are here," he said by phone from Gaza. "So the Islamic jihad was and is still and will be fighting the occupation on the land of Palestine only." Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab also said his group was aimed at "liberating Palestinian soil from Israeli occupation ... By all means. ...

"We have no interest in engaging in battle with anyone else outside the land of Palestine," he said.

Bureau Report