A statement apparently from top al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for a suicide boat attack on Iraq's Basra oil terminal at the weekend.
"We give you good tidings... your brothers with their boats targeted oil tankers in Mina al-Amiq and Mina al-Bakr," said the statement signed by Zarqawi and published on Muntada al-Ansar Islamist website.
Basra terminal, previously known as Mina al-Bakr, accounts for 85 per cent of Iraq's crude exports.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the statement posted on the website, which has previously carried statements attributed to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group.
