A letter purporting to come from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network includes a denial of any responsibility in yesterday's attacks that killed 185 people in Iraq. The letter blamed the attacks on the United States.
The letter, signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades with "al Qaeda" in parenthesis, was sent to the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper.
The newspaper has previously received similar letters from the same brigade in which they claimed responsibility for a November bombing of two synagogues in Turkey and the August bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
"US troops have committed a massacre against the innocent Shi'ite people to set sectarianism ablaze among Iraq's Muslims," the letter said.
"We, and with God as our witness, say we are innocent of this act and of anything that will drive the Shi'ites away. Our mujahideen (holy warriors) love God and his prophet and will not do anything that will harm the Iraqi people."
Suicide bombers, mortars and concealed explosives killed at least 185 people and wounded more than 435 in Baghdad and Kerbala during the holy Shi'ite mourning period of Ashura.
Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council blamed the blasts on Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who Washington says works for al Qaeda and whom it accuses of trying to fuel chaos in Iraq.
Some Shia clerics said the attacks were the work of Sunni Muslim extremists who want to foment a civil war in Iraq, where Shias are a majority.