A shadowy group claiming ties to al Qaeda said Tuesday that it carried out a deadly cross-border attack in Israel, the strongest evidence to date to back Israeli claims that the global terror network is operating on its doorstep.
While the claim of responsibility, made in a video obtained by the Associated Press in the Gaza Strip, couldn't be independently verified, it was accompanied by a separate statement with additional details on the attack posted on a website affiliated with al Qaeda.
In Monday's attack, two gunmen infiltrated Israel from Egypt's Sinai Desert, killing a civilian worker who was part of a team building a border fence to prevent such attacks. The two gunmen were later killed by Israeli forces.
The short video said the attack was carried out by the Mujahedeen Shura Council of Jerusalem, a murky group that was formed in April.
It identifies two men, one Egyptian and one Saudi, as the perpetrators of Monday's attack. "Soon we will carry out a double suicide mission against the enemy troops on the Egyptian border with occupy Palestine today, Monday, June 18," said the Saudi man.
Later Tuesday, the group issued a statement on an al Qaeda-linked website saying the men targeted an Israeli patrol with a bomb, antitank rockets and gunfire. It said the attack was dedicated to "Sheik Mujhahid Osama bin Laden," the al Qaeda founder who was assassinated by U.S. troops last year.
In videos released by the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center, MSC members stand in front of al Qaeda-style flags. And, in a statement, the MSC dedicated the attack to slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. "We present this blessed invasion ... to the soul of the lion of Islam, the reviver of jihad, and the raiser of the banner, Sheikh Mujahid Osama bin Muhammad bin Laden," the MSC says, according to a translation by SITE.
The MSC also dedicates the attack to "the Syrian Muslim jihadi people," to "all the mujahideen and their commanders and emirs in all the battlefields of jihad," and to the "Salafi Jihadi oppressed lions in the land of the Gaza glory."
The MSC repeats common jihadist talking points, saying it is waging jihad "to become a building block in the global project aiming for the return of the rightly-guided Caliphate and the institution of the pure Shariah."
The MSC identified the two fighters who led the raid in Israel as an Egyptian named Khalid Salah Abdul Hadi Jadullah (a.k.a. Abu Salah al Masri) and a Saudi named Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli (a.k.a Abu Hudhayfa al Hudhali).
“We announce the formation of the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Jerusalem as the foundation of a blessed Jihadi operation, with a clear path and features to be a brick in the global project of bringing back the [Islamic] caliphate,” one masked gunman said in the video.
“To the foes of God - the Jews - we say, you infidels must know that what is coming is different than what has preceded and we shall make you drink from the same poisonous glass you gave to the people of Islam in Jerusalem,” the gunman added.
This really isn't news. Al Qaeda is Muslim Brotherhood.... Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood.... it's always been that way. It's all the same shit. It's our numb nut feminist U.S State department that keeps on confusing us into thinking otherwise.
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