DUBAI, Aug 2 (AFP) - A hitherto unknown group calling itself "Planning and Follow-up Committee in Iraq" claimed responsibility Monday for a string of attacks against churches in the war-torn country, in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
"Your Mujahedeen (Islamic guerrilla) brothers dealt painful blows to the dens of the Crusaders, the dens of evil, corruption, vice and Christianization by blowing up four booby-trapped cars" which targeted the churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, said the statement.
The authenticity of the claim could not be verified.
At least 10 people were killed and some 50 others wounded when six bombs blew up outside four churches in Baghdad and another in Mosul during evening mass on Sunday.
"There's no doubt that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is a loathsome crusade targeting Islam and the Muslims and that America and its agents never hesitated to fight Islam with the pope's blessing," said the statement, posted on (http://www.ansarnet.ws/vb/).
"America was not content with occupying and invading Muslim countries. It also set up hundreds of institutions (to convert people to Christianity) and printed distorted books which it circulated among Muslims to detach them from their religion," it said.
"The Crusaders are one and the same nation, irrespective of their differences of view," added the statement, dated August 1.