The posting, on a Web site frequently used by Iraqi insurgents, said that followers of the group had fired 10 Krad rockets into northern Israel and that future attacks would be "bitter and harmful."

Three missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday, with a fourth landing in the town of Shlomi. While no one was seriously injured, Israel retaliated by firing missiles at a camp for a militant Palestinian group - Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command - operating just outside of Beirut.

Hezbollah, the militant Islamic party with ties to Iran whose forces effectively control the southern part of the country, issued a statement saying it did not have anything to do with the attacks and its spokesman refused to comment on the claim of the Iraqi militant group.

The Popular Front also issued a statement denying involvement.

Walid Jumblatt, the nation's Druse leader, said he believed that Syria was behind the attack - and behind the Iraqi group's claim - all as part of a strategy aimed at undermining Lebanese stability. He said the bombing had hurt Lebanon economically.

While there is no direct evidence the Syrians were behind the attack on Israel, the notion fits into a broader vision here in Lebanon, which holds that Syria is behind all of the violence and killing that has plagued the country - a charge Syria has denied.

Radwan al-Sayyed, a professor of Islamic philosophy in Lebanon, dismissed the Iraqi claim, saying the Palestinian group may have made the attack at Syria's urging.