Al-Qaida-linked militants claim responsibility for resort bomb

A group citing ties to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for today’s Sharm El Sheikh bombings that killed at least 62 people, according to a statement posted on an Islamic website.

The group, calling itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al Qaida, in Syria and Egypt, said that its “holy warriors targeted the Ghazala Gardens hotel and the Old Market in Sharm El Sheikh”.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

The brigades were one of two Islamist groups that claimed responsibility for the October 7 bombings at Sinai Peninsula Taba and Ras Shitan that killed 34 people.

“Your brothers, the holy warriors of the martyr Abdullah Azzam Brigades succeeded in launching a smashing attack on the Crusaders, Zionists and the renegade Egyptian regime in Sharm El Sheikh,” said the statement.

“We reaffirm that this operation was in response to the crimes committed by the forces of international evil, which are spilling the blood of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

“We declare it loud and clear that we will not be frightened by the whips of the Egyptian torturers and we will not tolerate violation of our brothers’ land of Sinai,” the statement added in an apparent reference to tourists who travel from neighbouring Israel to Sinai Peninsula for holidays.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades are apparently named after Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian militant who led Islamic militants in Afghanistan and was killed in 1989 by a roadside bomb, and was regarded as the one-time “spiritual mentor” of al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

Azzam studied Islamic theology in Egypt before travelling to Saudi Arabia where he lectured in Islamic law. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Azzam was financed by Saudi Arabia and other Islamic states to establish camps for Muslim militants who joined the fight against the Russian forces.