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
