DUBAI, Sept 25: Iraq’s Al Qaeda wing said it had carried out Sunday’s suicide car bombing that killed 13 Iraqi police commandos, according to an Internet statement. “A lion brother of the martyrs’ brigade on Sunday launched a heroic attack on a convoy of apostate commandos...,” said the statement, posted on a Website previously used by Iraqi militant groups.

It could not be immediately authenticated.

Iraqi police said the car bomber targeted the police commando patrol as they travelled on a highway in the east of the capital. Ten commandos were also wounded, police said.

The bomb followed clashes overnight between US troops and Shia militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City. Police said eight militia fighters were killed and five wounded in the fighting.

Al Qaeda, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq.

Earlier this month, Zarqawi declared a war on Shias in Iraq in response to a US-Iraqi government offensive on the rebel town of Tal Afar.—Reuters