The previously unknown Islamic Deterrence Forces, which claimed responsibility for the attack against the USS Cole in Aden last week that left 17 US sailors dead, said Tuesday the bombing was a suicide operation by two "heroic martyrs."
"We assert our responsibility for the second time for this attack and we now present the will of the two heroic martyrs who carried out the attack," the group said in an undated statement faxed to AFP in Beirut.
The statement did not mention the identities of the two men.
The two suicide bombers "wanted to say: our souls and our bloods are a gift to the blessed al-Aqsa mosque and we offer them to end the injustice on our Muslim people in Palestine and to defend the honor and dignity of our Arab and Islamic nation," said the group.
It said the operation was meant to tell "America that it will pay an expensive price for siding with the Zionist entity and for its arrogance and attempts to monopolize our nation with its gunships and military bases."
"We will continue our jihad (holy war) against the American military presence in our Arab and Muslim world," warned the group.
The group first claimed responsibility for the October 12 explosion that ripped through the US destroyer on Friday.
The same day a radical Muslim group identifying itself as Mohammed's Army also claimed responsiblity for the USS Cole attack and an explosion at the British embassy in Yemen, according to an exiled Muslim leader in London.
No one was hurt in the British attack -- BEIRUT (AFP)
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