A group calling itself 'Al Qaeda in Yemen' vowed to continue attacks on the U.S. and its allies in that country in what appears to be the group's first posting on the Internet.

"America and its allies, the worshippers of the cross, and their aides the apostates [referring to Arab rulers]...know that we will watch you. These operations are only the first spark and what's coming is worse and bitterer," the statement, dated Oct. 12, reads.

The group claims responsibility for the Sept. 15 attack on U.S. and Canadian-owned oil facilities in Yemen, which the Yemeni government said it had thwarted by blowing up four explosive-laden cars and thereby killing the four suicide bombers before they had reached their targets.  In its statement, 'Al Qaeda in Yemen' says, the planned attack was in response to orders by Osama bin Laden to hit Western economies.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, is no stranger to attacks. In  2000, 17 U.S. soldiers were killed in the suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.  Two years later, al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombing of the French oil supertanker Limburg off the coast.

Although the authenticity of the statement could not be immediately verified, a U.S. intelligence official told Reuters, "We know there is now some sort of organization that calls itself al Qaeda Yemen...We think they've been trying to get this up on a Web site for a while."

One of the operations on the oil facilities in Yemen was named after the late Abu Musaab al Zarqawi. "They should know that the blood of our brothers is not cheap. The murder of Sheikh Abu Musaab...will not pass without punishment," says the statement. Another was called after Ali al Harthi, an al Qaeda leader killed by missile fire from an unmanned CIA aircraft in 2002.