DUBAI, Aug 10 (AFP) - An Islamist website statement signed by a group linked to the Al-Qaeda Islamic militant network said it had succeeded in hitting two US intelligence agents in Istanbul attacks that killed two people and wounded 11 on Tuesday.
"One of the Abu Hafs (al-Masri) Brigades succeeded in targeting two elements of the US intelligence in a direct strike in the Istanbul attacks," the group said in a statement posted on the website.
It did not specify whether the two alleged agents were among those killed or wounded in the dawn attacks which were claimed by the same group in a previous statement posted on the same website.
The first statement warned of more such strikes in Europe after "all European states rejected the truce offered by our sheikh," Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"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.
It was the latest in a series of warnings attributed to the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades before and after the expiry of Bin Laden's truce offer on July 15, directed notably at Italy but also including Britain and Bulgaria.
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 from its announcement.
European leaders promptly dismissed the offer, saying the idea of negotiating with bin Laden was absurd.
Tuesday's attacks were also later claimed by a previously unknown Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons organization, according to the Germany-based pro-Kurdish MHA news agency.