Sheikh Yassin’s body prepared for burial

DUBAI, March 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A statement purporting to be from a group affiliated to al-Qaeda urged retaliation against the United States and its allies for Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Carried by the www.al-ansar.biz Monday, March 22, the statement – signed by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades – read: “Sheikh Yassin's blood will not have been shed in vain - we call on all the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades to avenge the sheikh of the Palestinian resistance by striking the tyrant of the century America and its allies".

Israeli occupation forces, given a green light from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, assassinated Yassin in the early hours of Monday, triggering an immediate outcry across occupied Palestine and rage worldwide.

Backed by U.S.-made F16s jet fighters, an Israeli strike helicopter fired three missiles at crippled Yassin and his entourage while in their way back home following the dawn prayers.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades take their name from an al-Qaeda leader killed in Washington's 2001 onslaught in Afghanistan and is a name regularly used in communiqués from the Islamic network to its cells around the world, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

There was no immediate way of establishing the authenticity of the latest statement.

"We tell fighters in Palestine, especially Hamas and Jihad, that your real enemy is the tyrant of the age, America, because Sheikh Yassin was killed by American money, weapons and political and media support," the statement said.

"Let us unite to strike this Jewish-crusader snake, this despotic enemy ...the Jews can be found in every inch of the world and they are the ones who support the Jews of the Zionist entity in Palestine through money and in the media," it said.

According to Reuters, the statement was also published by another Islamic Web site called Islammemo, which said the letter was received by email and sent to several Arab media outlets.

The assassination has stirred rage in the Arab and Islamic worlds with many putting the blame widely on Washington. Hamas openly accused the United States of giving Israel the green light to carry out “this heinous crime”.

U.S. President George W. Bush’s Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, however, denied the accusations that it gave Israel the green light for Yassin's assassination or that it had advance warning.