Jihad at Planet Hollywood

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The bombing of a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa, is unlikely to be the work of Osama bin Laden, but it suggests that backlash from last week's U.S. missile strike may originate in quarters far outside the super-terrorist's own networks. A group calling itself Muslims Against Global Oppression said the Tuesday evening blast that killed two people and wounded 21 was in retaliation for the strike on Afghanistan and Sudan. A group of the same name had protested against President Clinton's visit to the city earlier this year, which suggests the attackers may have been part of the tiny radical element of the city's minority Muslim community.

A handful of Islamic fundamentalists have been involved in a two-year vigilante war against the city's drug dealers, and have used pipe bombs to attack suspected gang members on a number of occasions. If such disparate elements are now turning their attention to attacking targets linked (however spuriously) to the U.S., it may be a sign that the strike on Bin Laden has fueled a response to his call for global jihad.