The Saudi wing of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on the heavily fortified US consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah in which at least nine people died on Monday, according to an internet statement released Tuesday. 

"The squadron of the martyr Abu Annas al-Shami carried out the blessed ... attack by storming one of the bastions of the crusaders in the Arabian Peninsula and penetrated the American consulate in Jeddah," al-Qaeda organization in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement.

"This operation is part of al-Qaeda's plan to fight the crusaders and Jews and to expel infidels from the Arabian Peninsula. The mujahideen (holy fighters) will continue firmly on their path ..." said the statement which was posted on several websites often used by Islamists.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement which also said two of the group's fighters were killed while others had been wounded but fled to a safe area.

The group claimed it killed nine people in the consulate, including two Americans, and seven Saudi security forces.

The US Embassy said five non-American local consulate employees had died. The Saudi Interior Ministry said security forces killed three attackers while another two were wounded and captured -- one of whom died later in hospital. The ministry made no mention of fatalities among security forces.

The group codenamed its operation on the consulate the "Fallujah attack" -- after the western Iraqi city where US-led forces launched an offensive to crush insurgents, including supporters of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Abu Annas al-Shami, whose real name is Omar Youssef Jumah, was the spiritual mentor of Jordanian militant Zarqawi, whose group has claimed several attacks in Iraq. Jumah was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in September, according to relatives.

Malaysia, which chairs the world's largest Muslim group, denounced yesterday the attack and called for greater effort to fight terrorism, which it said was spreading to unlikely places.

Monday's attack was the first against a Western diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia and first major strike in six months by militants bent on overthrowing the ruling family and driving Westerners from the birthplace of Islam.