Al-Qaeda 'claims Turkey bombings'

An Arabic newspaper says it has received a statement from al-Qaeda saying it carried out the attacks against synagogues in Istanbul. The editor of the London-based al-Quds newspaper says the claim was sent by al-Qaeda in an email. "The statement said that they carried out the operations after they found out that (Israeli) Mossad agents were working at the synagogues," he said. At least 23 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the bombings. Al-Quds' editor, Abdel-Bari Atwan, told the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera that the statement was from an al-Qaeda division called Brigades of the Martyr Abu Hafz al-Masri. That division had claimed responsibility for the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad - which killed 23 people in August.