y Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
A terrorist organization claiming to be affiliated with al-Qaida has warned of attacks on South Korea and its troops in Iraq unless the troops are withdrawn within two weeks, a Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry official said Tuesday.

The warning message from the ``Martyr Hammound al-Masri battalion,’’ datelined Sept. 30, was posted on an Arab-language Web site on Oct. 10, spokesman Lee Kyu-hyung said at a news conference at the ministry.

``Currently, the government is analyzing the credibility of the threat and other related information,’’ he told reporters.

The martyr battalion, which has not been heard of before, claimed to be associated with al-Qaida and operate in Southeast Asia, allegedly having a local branch in Seoul, Lee said.

The Seoul government has been put on high alert for possible terrorist attacks as it is the second threat of its kind this month, Lee said. But he added that no high-ranking officials’ meeting is scheduled to deal with the threat from the battalion.

On Oct. 1, the Arabic language TV news network Al Jazeera aired what it claimed was a new audiotape of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant, urging ``young men of Islam’’ to resist the U.S.’ allies, including South Korea.

South Korea deployed 2,800 troops to Iraq last month and will add 800 more once a base has been built in Irbil.

The unit, which needs its mandate renewed by the National Assembly to stay beyond December, is the third-largest foreign force in the Middle Eastern country, after the contingents from the U.S. and Britain.

South Korea is relatively unfamiliar with Islamic terrorism, most of its defense capabilities being directed against communist North Korea.

im@koreatimes.co.kr