Al-Qaida said on Wednesday it was behind a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Pakistan which it mounted in revenge for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

At least six people were killed and about 20 were wounded when a car bomb blew up outside the embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Monday.

An Internet statement, signed by al-Qaida's leader in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, said Denmark was targeted as it had not apologized for the publication of the cartoons.

The attack was a "revenge against the infidel government ... of Denmark which published degrading drawings of the prophet ... and refused to apologize but continued ... and was followed by leading Crusader states, organizations and figures," it said.

The attack was in line with a pledge of revenge by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the group said in the statement, posted on Islamist websites.

Its authenticity could not be independently verified.

The statement said a recorded message from the al-Qaida suicide bomber who carried out the attack would be issued.

The cartoon, reprinted by Danish newspapers earlier this year, depicts Mohammad wearing a bomb in his turban.

It was one of 12 drawings of the Prophet that sparked riots in the Muslim world in 2006 after originally being printed in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

(China Daily via agencies June 5, 2008)