June 24, 2002	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1423

CAIRO, June 23: The Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack on a synagogue in Jerba, Tunisia, in April which claimed 19 lives, according to a broadcast report on Sunday.

The Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera television played what it said was a tape recording of the voice of Al Qaeda spokesman Suleman Abu Gheith claiming responsibility for the terror attack.

“This operation was carried out by a young man from the Al Qaeda organization who could not stand seeing his brothers in Palestine being killed and their lands violated, while Jews moved freely in his home town of Jerba and performed their rituals as they wished,” said Abu Gheith.

Consequently, the spirit for jihad was born in this young man and he decided to “carry out this successful operation”, according to the Al Qaeda spokesman.

He also denied reports that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or any of the group’s other leading figures, including the Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, were injured in the US attacks on Afghanistan.

He claimed that 98 per cent of the Al Qaeda leadership remained intact and were going about their duties normally, adding that very soon they would appear on television.

Abu Gheith also promised further attacks against US and Israeli targets, saying that what had happened was only the beginning. The organization, he said, was quite capable of threatening the US and “executing out its threats”.

He also mentioned the ongoing debate in the US as to whether administration officials were informed about the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington, implying that the tape was made recently.

Al Qaeda operatives, said Abu Gheith, were currently carrying out surveillance on a number of new US targets, which according to him, were different from previously selected targets.—dpa