- CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A coalition of Islamic militant groups warned
in an Arabic newspaper today that "strikes will continue from everywhere"
against the United States.
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- The statement from the World Islamic
Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, formed by exiled Saudi millionaire
Osama bin Laden in February, was printed today in the London-based daily
Al-Hayat.
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- "The coming days will guarantee,
God willing, that America will face a black fate," the statement said.
"Strikes will continue from everywhere, and Islamic groups will appear
one after the other to fight American interests."
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- The Jihad front is believed to be a coalition
of six fundamentalist groups from Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Its statement
was sent Tuesday to Al-Hayat's bureau in Cairo.
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- Al-Hayat said it came with three other
statements from the Islamic Army for the Liberation of Holy Shrines, which
claimed responsibility for the two deadly bombings of U.S. embassies in
Tanzania and Kenya on Aug. 7.
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- In one statement, the Holy Shrines group
said it would "continue shipping more American dead bodies to their
unjust government ... until we humiliate America's arrogance and roll its
dignity in the mud of defeat."
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- The group had not been heard of before
the explosions in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which left
257 people dead and more than 5,500 injured. Among the dead were 12 Americans.
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- The separate statement from the Jihad
coalition tied the motive for the embassy attacks to U.S. involvement in
Somalia in the early 1990s.
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- "The two embassies, which the Islamic
Army for the Liberation of Holy Shrines bombed, have supervised the killings
of at least 13,000 Somali civilians in the treacherous attack led by America
against this Muslim country," it said.
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- A U.N. peacekeeping mission dominated
by the United States landed in Somalia in late 1992 and provided protection
for food distribution to help end a famine in the east African country.
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- But the U.N. force became bogged down
in Somalia's factional fighting, and 18 U.S. soldiers were killed before
the force withdrew in 1995 without solving the political problems.
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- The statement from the Jihad coalition
said when the Holy Shrines group claimed responsibility for the bombings
"it became clear to everyone, including the American people, that
we were not lying when we warned them."
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- The group had issued a warning of attacks,
printed in Al-Hayat, several days before the embassy bombings.
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- Al-Hayat said the three other statements
of the Holy Shrines group were titled "Open Letter to the Kenyan people,"
"Congratulations" and "A Communique to People."
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- The first statement said that the Nairobi's
bombing "was targeting the American presence only ... and the Islamic
Army's intention was not to hurt Kenyan people."
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- The second was to congratulate Muslims
"for taking revenge from the American Crusader criminal gang."
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- The third warned of more attacks and
asked Muslims "not to get close to anything American ... so that they
won't be hit by the fire of the soldiers of God" by mistake.
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