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Al-Qaeda in Iraq threatens to kill kidnapped Egypt - Muslimah - 07-07-2005
http://www.arabia.msn.com/News/menews/news1/
The group of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, threatened to kill Egypt's abducted top envoy, while a US senator called on the Iraqi parliament to make clear US forces have been invited to remain in the country.
In the latest violence, 13 people were killed in two almost simultaneous car bomb attacks in the town of Mashruh, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, police said.
According to a message posted on the Internet, "the Islamic court of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers has decided to refer the ambassador of the state of Egypt, an ally of the Jews and the Christians, to the mujahedeens so that they can execute him".
Ambassador-designate Ihab al-Sharif, 51, was kidnapped late Saturday when he stopped at a shop on a Baghdad street, in the first abduction of a head of mission since the spate of foreign hostage-takings began.
"This ambassador did not come with a message to the struggling Muslim community, but in order to help consolidate the Crusader state," said Zarqawi's group in the statement which could not be authenticated.
"These embassies (in Iraq) are control towers to catch the mujahedeen ... and there are none meaner and more harmful than the Egyptian intelligence officers in the Abu Ghraib and Bucca jails and the Baghdad International Airport detention cells."
Zarqawi's group earlier Wednesday posted on an Islamist website photos of the diplomat's identification cards.
The Jordanian-born militant, who has a 25-million-dollar US price on his head, has claimed responsibility for a large number of the attacks, kidnappings and murders in Iraq since the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein two years ago.
Meanwhile, visiting US Democrat Senator Carl Levin, ranking member of the armed services committee, Wednesday called on the parliament to make it clear US forces remain in the country only temporarily and at Iraq's own invitation.
"The attack upon us by the insurgents as being an occupying power is the kind of propaganda attack that is damaging to us and that plays into the hands and strengthen the insurgents," Levin said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
"We very much would like to see the assembly (parliament) adopt a resolution that makes it clear that a sovereign state, Iraq, has invited and welcomes the people who are here with the coalition hopefully for a limited time, and clearly for a limited time, although we dont know the date of departure but nonetheless that we are not occupiers but that we are here as allies."
Speaking earlier following a meeting with President Jalal Talabani, Levin also called for a comprehensive plan to hand over more responsibilities to Iraqi forces while reducing the US military presence.
Levin, whose party is in opposition to US President George Bush's Republican party, said the plan should demonstrate how US forces will gradually be stood down as Iraq's newly-trained forces take over.
Bush has refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of America's estimated 140,000 troops amid mounting casualties and declining public support for the US mission in Iraq.
Jaafari has backed Bush's position despite mounting calls for a timetable from both members of his own Shiite community and Sunni Arabs, who are blamed for fueling the insurgency.
Iran also cautioned Jaafari's Shiite-dominated government Wednesday not to allow foreign troops to consolidate their presence in Iraq and build long-term bases because this would serve Israel's interests
"The Iraqi government and people should not allow foreign powers to consolidate their presence in the region and thereby reinforce the security of the Zionist regime," Iran's Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkani, during a meeting with his visiting Iraqi counterpart, Saadun al-Dulaimi.
Dulaimi headed a delegation that arrived in Tehran Tuesday for a three-day visit, the first by the Iraqi military since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
Meanwhile, in a reminder of the challenges facing Iraqi forces, two policemen and a member of a crack commando unit were killed and 10 others wounded in separate attacks in Baghdad, security sources said.
A commander in the Badr militia, the armed wing of the main Shiite grouping in Iraq, was gunned down in the capital, hospital and security sources said.
An Internet-posted message attributed to Zarqawi announced the formation of the Omar Brigade to kill members of the Badr militia.
Many Sunni Arabs accuse Badr of killing their clerics and former members of Saddam's security apparatus, allegedly in line with a hit list compiled by the Iranian-trained militia.
Meanwhile, Iraq's interior minister warned foreign diplomats against making contact with insurgent groups.
"We have some information that some ambassadors are meeting terrorists and they bear the responsibility for that," Bayan Solagh told reporters.
Pakistan transferred its ambassador Yunis Khan to Jordan after an attempt on his life Tuesday. An embassy official insisted the measure was temporary.
In a separate incident, Bahraini charge d'affaires Hassan al-Ansari was wounded in a kidnap attempt Tuesday.