BBC News Online: World: Middle East

Al-Qaeda 'responsible' for Tunisia blast

The synagogue attack had been linked to al-Qaeda before

A London-based Arab newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, said it had interviewed Abdelazeem al-Mohajer near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on an undisclosed date.

Israeli, US and German officials had earlier raised the possibility of an al-Qaeda link to the attack in the resort of Djerba.

Fourteen German tourists were among the dead.

Tunisian officials initially said the explosion of a fuel truck outside the synagogue was an accident.

But they later agreed with Germany that it was a planned attack, and said the lorry had been deliberately detonated by the driver who died in the blast.

Warning

Abdelazeem al-Mohajer - described by the newspaper as an al-Qaeda leader - was quoted as saying the attack on the Ghriba synagogue proved to the US that its military campaign had not defeated Osama Bin Laden's organisation.

He warned the US of more such strikes.

"The network is preparing to make a new, more painful strike against the Americans," he is quoted as saying.

"Our network is not confined to a single spot on this earth. We are scattered all over the globe."

He added that Osama Bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Omar were both still alive.