WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- An Internet posting Wednesday, apparently from Osama bin Laden's al Qaida network, described this week's earthquake in Afghanistan as God's punishment against those who supported the American-led war against terror.
"The earthquake in (the northern Afghan province of) Baghlan has a lesson for those who can see," says the posting on the al-Neda Web site, which means "the voice" in Arabic.
"Calamities like earthquakes, wars and storms are signs to show that God is upset with the aggressors," the posting goes on, "but there are few who believe in them and fewer who learn from them."
Al-Neda regularly carries postings purporting to come from al Qaida, often commenting on or reporting events not covered by the media, which lends the claims credibility.
On March 22, for example, the site reported an attack on U.S. troops at the Khost airport in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. Central Command confirmed "a probing attack" had taken place at the airport and said that one U.S. soldier had been injured.
U.S. intelligence officials have said that since the defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan last year, al Qaida has become dependent on the Internet both for internal communications and connections with the outside world.
While describing the damages done by this week's earthquake, the Web site says that it came in an area where people had opposed the Taliban and al Qaida and supported the United States.
It also reminds readers that in 1998 two severe earthquakes killed more than 9,000 people in this area -- which it says was a base for "the forces of Ahmad Shah Masud and Rabbani."
Masud was the military commander of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, killed by suicide bombers linked to al Qaida just days before the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. Burhanuddin Rabbani is the former Afghan president who leads the Northern Alliance.
