DUBAI, Aug 10 (AFP) - A group linked to the Al-Qaeda Islamic militant network that claimed deadly attacks in Turkey and Spain said Tuesday it carried out the latest blasts in Istanbul and warned of more such strikes in Europe.
"The Abu Hafs (al-Masri) Brigades have carried out the first of a series of operations that will be launched in the face of European states... and the upcoming attacks will be more violent," the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
It said the strikes were ordered after "all European states rejected the truce offered by our sheikh," Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Attacks targeting tourist hotels and a gas complex killed two people and wounded another 11 in Istanbul on Tuesday.
"The bitterness that Muslims are tasting in Iraq and Palestine will be tasted by everyone living in Europe, in Istanbul, Rome and the rest of the countries that are following the policy of the United States," the statement said.
A subsequent statement "will disclose the way the mujahedin (fighters) arrived at the site (of the bombing) and how they succeeded in planting the bombs and get away safely," it said.
"Our position is clear. People of Europe, you will not enjoy security as long as you remain in your ugly silence. If you do not remove your governments, which have accepted the slaughter of Muslims, you will hear a response that you will not like," it said.
"Europe`s rallying behind the mediocre (US President George W.) Bush will lead to an escalating war that will not end without a change in policy by European states towards Muslims and their rejection of the criminal American policies that keep targeting Muslims in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan and the rest of the Muslim states."
The group warned: "There will not be safety (in Europe) unless your governments withdraw from the land of Iraq.
"There will be no safety unless you reject the American policy based on slaughtering, killing and torturing prisoners," it said.
"Your silence shows that you support and back your governments," it added.
It was the latest in a series of warnings attributed to the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades since the expiry on July 15 of a truce offered by Bin Laden to European states.
In a taped message broadcast by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television on April 15 the Al-Qaeda chief offered peace to European countries that refrained from aggression towards Muslims and pulled their troops out of the Muslim world within three months.
European leaders promptly dismissed the offer, saying the idea of negotiating with bin Laden was absurd.
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people, as well as for November 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 25 people.
Spain drew criticism from other members of the US-led coalition in Iraq by withdrawing its troops following the Madrid attacks.
Abu Hafs al-Masri headed Al-Qaeda military operations until he was killed in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.