'Qaeda-linked' group renews threat to attack Europe

10.00am

DUBAI - Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaeda vowed new attacks on Europe once a "truce" offered by Osama bin Laden expires in two weeks, newspapers said on Friday.

Governments and analysts played down the threat, noting the group in question had made unfounded claims before. French President Jacques Chirac said he took any such report seriously but that little could be done to improve already tight security.

But a US intelligence official said the al Qaeda deadline could not be ignored, regardless of the authenticity of the purported statement by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades.

"We can't confirm that the Abu Hafs Brigade speaks authoritatively for al Qaeda, but absent that, it is fair to say that there would be some concern about the expiration of this deadline which could potentially presage other attacks," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Qaeda leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, gave European states three months to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries or face new attacks like the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people on March 11.

European security sources viewed that offer as a propaganda ploy to help justify future attacks. But a senior intelligence official told Reuters this week there was no indication of plans for any attack immediately after the ultimatum expires.

"To the European people ... you only have a few more days to accept bin Laden's truce or you will only have yourselves to blame," read the Abu Hafs statement, referring to bin Laden's ultimatum which ends in mid-July.

"The race now is between you, time and European governments which have refused to stop their attacks against Muslims.

"So do not blame us for what will happen and we apologise to you in advance if you are among those killed."

THREAT PLAYED DOWN

Excerpts of the Abu Hafs statement were published by two London-based Arabic newspapers, Asharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat. Al-Hayat said the letter arrived by e-mail dated July 1. It is not clear how close the Abu Hafs group is to bin Laden himself.

"Muslims in the West should depart to Muslim states if they can," the group said. "Those who cannot should take precautions and live in Muslim areas, have enough food to last a month."

Germany said it did not consider the threat particularly credible. An interior ministry spokesman noted the Abu Hafs group claimed responsibility for last year's power cuts in New York that turned out to be caused by a technical failure.

A British security source also said the threat was not credible: "They claimed the Madrid bombings and it clearly wasn't them ... They're just repeating the same old bile."

"Of course we take any type of terrorist threat on European territory very seriously," Chirac told a joint news conference in Paris with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

But asked whether France would increase security, he said: "We are doing the absolute maximum in this area."

Berlusconi echoed his comments.

In Spain, whose new government pulled troops out of Iraq after the March 11 bombings, an interior ministry spokeswoman said: "In no case have communiques influenced the government's decisions and therefore they will not influence it now."

David Claridge, managing director of Janusian Security Risk Management in London, said he was skeptical about whether the group was part of al Qaeda, which he said did not typically give advance threats to commit attacks on or around specific dates.

But he added: "It's clearly concerning that any organisation is making threats of that sort of nature. An ultimatum was made, the ultimatum has clearly not been adhered to, so I would expect that this would push the threat level up."

- REUTERS