DUBAI, July 21 (AFP) - A group calling itself "Al-Qaeda organisation in Europe" in a website statement on Wednesday threatened Bulgaria and Poland with attack unless they withdrew their troops from Iraq.
"We demand, for the last time, that you withdraw your troops from Iraq ... otherwise we will transform Bulgaria into a pool of blood," said the statement on an Islamist website.
Its authenticity could not be verified.
"The crusader Bulgarian government, ally of the Americans ... only knows the language of blood which will be expressed as in Spain, Washington and New York," added the text, posted on the website http://www.ansarnet.ws/vb/.
The statement was referring to the September 2001 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, and the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people.
The hitherto unknown group also demanded that Poland and "especially its Prime Minister Marek Belka, pull out invading Polish troops or pay the price, like what happened in Spain".
"Withdraw your troops from Iraq or we will make you hear the sound of explosions," it said.
Poland, one of Washington`s staunchest supporters in the Iraq war, has a contingent that patrols a large swathe of the country south of Baghdad, heading a 6,500-strong multinational force including 2,500 Polish troops.
Bulgaria has 470 soldiers in Iraq, serving under Polish command at the Shiite holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad.