November 8, 2002	Friday	Ramazan 2,1423

HONG KONG, Nov 7: The Al Qaeda network has said it carried out last month’s devastating bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, CNN said on Thursday.

In a website message translated by CNN, the group said it had attacked “nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia”.

Almost 200 people, mainly foreign tourists, were killed when a huge car bomb went off outside Bali’s Sari nightclub on Oct 12.

The CNN said the website has been used in the past by Al Qaeda to claim responsibility for attacks, including the synagogue fire in Tunisia in which mainly German tourists died, and strikes on two ships in Yemen.

“By attempting to strike a US plane in Saudi Arabia and by bombing a Jewish synagogue in Tunisia, destroying two ships in Yemen, attacking the Fialka base in Kuwait, and bombing nightclubs and whorehouses in Indonesia, Al Qaeda has shown it has no qualms about attacking inside Arab and Islamic lands,” the statement said.

“This is provided that the target belongs to the Jewish-Crusader alliance,” it added.

A spokesman for Bali-based multinational investigation team, which is hunting the perpetrators of the bombing, said he had information about the claim by Al Qaeda.—AFP