Kidnappers of Egyptian diplomat threaten to kill him
Kidnappers of Egypt’s top diplomat in Iraq threatened to kill him because today on an al-Qaida-linked website.
Al Qaida’s religious court decided to hand over Ihab al-Sherif to its fighters “to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him,” said the statement on the site associated with al-Qaida in Iraq. Under Islam, apostasy, or changing religion, is punishable by death.
The statement was ominous because al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been responsible for beheading several foreign hostages, including American Nicholas Berg. Al-Zarqawi’s group also has claimed responsibility for numerous car-bombings in Iraq – many against Iraqi civilians.
Since al-Sherif, 51, was taken captive Saturday night, two more diplomats from Muslim countries have been ambushed in suspected kidnap attempts as part of what Iraqi officials say is an effort to sow a climate of fear and discourage Arab and Islamic countries from strengthening their ties to Iraq’s new government.
Earlier today, the same website posted pictures of the Egyptian envoy’s identification cards, saying it was proof that al-Qaida in Iraq had taken the envoy.
The pictures showed the front and back of five ID cards in al-Sherif’s name. His Egyptian driver’s licence and a Foreign Ministry card showed his photograph.
“These are the personal identification cards of the ambassador of the idols,” the group said.
The statement which threatened to kill al-Sherif said: “The sharia court of the al-Qaida in Iraq organisation has decided to transfer the apostate ambassador of Egypt, which has allied itself to the Jews and Christians, to the mujahedeen to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him.”
Its authenticity could not be independently verified.
In an audiotape on the same website, the reputed leader of al Qaida in Iraq purportedly said the country’s security forces are as great an enemy as the Americans.
Meanwhile, a senior aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr visited Bahrain’s diplomatic mission today, saying the recent spate of attacks against Arab envoys was aimed at forcing embassies to withdraw from Iraq.
Sheikh Hassan al-Ithari said the meeting was part of al-Sadr’s desire to hear Arab sentiment about the attacks. Al-Sadr aides plan to visit between six and seven diplomatic missions in the coming days.
“We think there is a deliberate plan to force the embassies from Iraq and make Iraq a den for terrorists,” al-Ithari told reporters.
Also today, gunmen killed four policemen and wounded at least nine more in separate attacks in Baghdad.
Gunmen killed Capt Hazim Jabbar, a member of the police special commando brigade. Jabbar worked as a bodyguard for a consultant to former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Three other police, including two commandoes, were killed in separate incidents. Nine police, including a brigadier general, were wounded in a series of attacks.
A US senator who criticised US President George Bush’s Iraq policy at recent congressional hearings was in Baghdad for meetings with politicians, officials said.
Sen Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s senior Democrat, was accompanied by several members of his staff.
Meanwhile a member of the biggest Shiite militia, the Badr Brigade, was killed in an ambush in Baghdad. An Iraqi civilian who had been “co-operative” with the Americans was shot dead on his way to work north of Baghdad near Tarmiya, police said.
A US soldier was killed yesterday and two wounded by a roadside bomb north-east of Baghdad. One Iraqi soldier died and three were injured when a suicide car bomber struck their checkpoint late yesterday 20 miles south of Kirkuk, Iraqi officials said.
Iraqi security forces have been increasingly targeted by insurgents to shake public confidence in the new government elected in January. That has led to public criticism from some Iraqis who support attacks against Americans and other foreigners but not their fellow citizens.
In an audiotape on the internet, a speaker said to be al Zarqawi insisted that Iraqi troops and police were as legitimate a target as the Americans. The comments appeared aimed at discouraging insurgents from entering talks with the Iraqi government.
“Some say that the resistance is divided into two groups – an honourable resistance that fights the non-believer-occupier and a dishonourable resistance that fights Iraqis,” the speaker said. “We announce that the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the Crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it.”
The speaker also announced the formation of a new terror command to fight Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia. Al-Zarqawi’s attacks against Iraqi Shiites, who comprise an estimated 60% of the country’s 26 million people, have raised fears that this nation could descend into civil war.
It was impossible to determine whether the speaker was al-Zarqawi, although the voice sounded like ones on tapes US officials have verified as coming from al-Zarqawi.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials have said US representatives have participated in meetings with Sunni insurgents in an effort to help the Iraqi government draw militants into the political process.
The speaker on the tape tacitly acknowledged pressure to abandon the struggle against the Americans and their Iraqi allies, saying he was “saddened and burdened” by people ”advising me not to persist in fighting in Iraq.”
He also said the Americans began speaking of negotations to end the conflict after al-Qaida had “humiliated” US forces on the battlefield.
Rumsfeld has insisted the talks with insurgnts did not involve negotiations with al-Zarqawi and other suspected terrorists.
