 The terrorist group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi denied Thursday that it staged car bombings that killed 67 people in two holy Shiite Muslim cities this week, but stressed that it will continue to attack those who help the Americans. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks Sunday, which caused the worst carnage in Iraq for months. The strikes at a funeral procession in Najaf and a bus station in Karbala appeared designed to provoke sectarian fighting between majority Shiites and minority Sunnis. U.S. officials said early this year that they had intercepted a letter from al-Zarqawi in which he allegedly called for attacks on Shiites to provoke a civil war and undermine the U.S.-led effort to stabilize Iraq. Al-Zarqawi's group, which recently changed its name to Al-Qaida in Iraq and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, denied having anything to do with Sunday's bombings. |