DUBAI, Aug 29 (AFP) - A group linked to Al-Qaeda promised Sunday to spare the Vatican while focusing attacks on Italy and its prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, for rejecting an ultimatum to pull Italian troops out of Iraq.
"We declare that the Vatican will never be one of our targets, as we will only strike in painful places which will force the vile Italian soldiers in Iraq to get out," said a statement signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades-European Battalion, and posted on an Islamist website.
"We warn you, Berlusconi, that you may have escaped attempts against you in the past, but our position is clear and we will not be lenient and we will not stop until security becomes reality in the Muslim country of Iraq," it said.
"We will not rest until we transform life in your country into hell as long as your soldiers are on the land of peace in Iraq."
Italy has been a staunch supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq and maintains about 3,000 troops in the country.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Rome would not give in to "terrorist blackmail" after the execution of a kidnapped Italian journalist by the Islamic Army in Iraq group which also demanded that Rome withdraw its troops.
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades had in previous statements threatened to attack Italian targets unless Rome withdrew its troops by August 15.
On July 16, the group threatened Italy with a bloodbath on the scale of the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed thousands in the United States if Berlusconi remained in power.
The Brigades claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid which killed 191 people, and the November 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 25.
Abu Hafs al-Masri headed Al-Qaeda military operations until he was killed in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.