An Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group in Lebanon claimed to have launched the Katyusha rockets that struck Israeli 
The statement concludes with an undefined threat against Israel.
territory on Friday. The action was not the first by the Al-Qaeda loyalists and they promise it won't be the last.
According to a communique dated September 11, but released into jihadist online forums over the weekend, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of Al-Qaeda of Al-Sham (Greater Syria) were behind the recent Katyusha rocket attack on Israel's northern frontier, not Hizbullah.
In the incident, two 122-millimeter rockets were fired from 15 kilometers within southern Lebanon and slammed into open fields in Israel's Western Galilee region. There were no reports of injuries or damage, but Israel retaliated with 12 to 15 artillery shells fired at the rocket launch site. Lebanese army and UN troops later confirmed that rockets were fired from near the village of Al-Kalila, and eyewitnesses told Lebanese media that three launchers were used by men in civilian clothes who fled the scene.
"The rocket fire was in response to the siege imposed by the Jews on our nation in Gaza, and to the barring of Islam from the Al-Aqsa mosque and to the tunnel excavations underneath it - all of which is done with utter disdain for Muslims, for their faith and for their religion," the communique says, according to researchers from the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR).
The statement concludes with an undefined threat against Israel: "For [these reasons], we fired the rockets. And we promise that we are coming."
On the other hand, IDF sources called the Friday rocket attacks "an isolated incident," which the military does not see as part of a planned escalation.
The choice of Abdullah Azzam for the name of the the Al-Qaeda franchise's attack cell was apparently carefully made. Azzam was born in a village located near Jenin, in what is today the Palestinian Authority. He later became a religious and ideological mentor for Osama Bin-Laden and coined the phrase that eventually became the name "Al-Qaeda" for the global leadership of jihad. Azzam was killed by a bomb blast in Pakistan in 1989.
Did the United Nations Know?
In late July, Al-Qaeda of Al-Sham released a video in which they claimed to have launched several attacks on Israel. The group mocked the Iran-backed Hizbullah terrorist organization and called for a unified front against Israel and the United Nations under the command of Osama Bin-Laden. The video also visually demonstrated how one of the group's cells supposedly bypassed the Lebanese Army, Hizbullah and UNIFIL forces, launched missiles towards Israel, and then retreated. These actions, the video claimed, were carried out under the command of Bin-Laden.
At the time, ITRR predicted "an increased likelihood of terror activity aimed at northern Israel," including rocket fire.
While ITRR may have analyzed available intelligence and reached a conclusion as to the likelihood of an Al-Qaeda attack on Israel, the United Nations reportedly had specific advance warning.
On Sunday, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported that UNIFIL forces in south Lebanon were warned in advance of the possibility that Katyusha rockets would be fired toward Israel. UNIFIL reportedly relayed the information to the Lebanese army eight days after receiving the warning, but two days before the actual attack.