An Islamic terror group says it did it

According to a New York Times article filed in Oslo and linked at Drudge, a Muslim jhadist group has claimed responsibility for the Oslo bombing:

By nightfall in Norway, a fuller picture began to emerge of apparently coordinated terror attacks. Norwegian news media, citing the police, said a shooting suspect had been arrested and that he was connected to the Oslo explosions.

Though the police did not immediately connect the explosions with terrorism, the mangled wreckage of a car could be seen in front of Oslo’s main government building, flipped on its side, damaged so badly that its make and color were not apparent, and a large area of sidewalk pavement was completely blown away. Reports in local media said that officials were assuming it was a deliberate bombing.

A terror group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or the Helpers of the Global Jihad, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to Will McCants, a terrorism analyst at C.N.A., a research institute that studies terrorism. The message said the attack was a response to Norwegian forces’ presence in Afghanistan and to unspecified insults to the Prophet Muhammad. “We have warned since the Stockholm raid of more operations,” the group said, according to Mr. McCants’ translation, apparently referring to a bombing in Sweden in December 2010. “What you see is only the beginning, and there is more to come.” The claim could not be confirmed. It is not uncommon for terrorist groups to advance claims of responsibility for high-profile attacks, only to have the claims prove to be spurious.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 22, 2011 04:52 PM | Send