DUBAI (Reuters) - A little-known Iraqi group said it was behind a car bombing of the office of Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in Baghdad which killed seven people, according to a statement posted on the Internet.
"Thank God, the building of the Arabic-speaking Americanized spy journalists was destroyed," said the statement by the group calling itself the 1920 Battalions, posted on Web sites used by Iraqi militants.
The message of the group, named after an uprising against British control of Iraq, could not be independently authenticated.
A group with a similar name said in a videotape aired on Saturday it kidnapped a Sudanese translator who it said worked for a U.S. company.
Majority Saudi-owned Al Arabiya has often been attacked on Web sites used by Islamist militants for its perceived pro-U.S. stance in the Arab world.
A video image aired by Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya October 30, 2004 shows two masked men pointing rifles at a Sudanese translator, named as Noureddin Zakaria, taken hostage in the Iraqi rebel town of Ramadi by an Iraqi resistance group. 'The group said his employer, the American 'Titan' company, should stop its activities in Iraq and leave the country in return for his release,' the Dubai-based channel said. The company name appears to refer to the Titan Corp., which provides technology and translation services to the U.S. military. NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE, MUST SHOW ONSCREEN LOGO, MANDATORY CREDIT AL ARABIYA REUTERS/Al Arabiya via Reuters Television