Al-Qaida claims rare attacks in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD - The Associated Press

Kurdish security forces inspect the site of a bomb attack in the city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad, September 29, 2013. REUTERS photo

Al-Qaida's local branch in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a spate of suicide attacks last month in the northern, relatively peaceful self-ruled Kurdish region.
 
The Sept. 29 bombings killed at least six security forces and wounded more than 30 people.
 
In a statement posted Monday on a militant website, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant says the attacks were in retaliation to statements recently made by the regional President Massoud Barzani expressing readiness to help Syrian Kurdish militias.
 
Al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria have been fighting ethnic Kurds in Syria's northeast.
 
The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed, but it was consistent with earlier al-Qaida statements.