U2Girl1978
Blue Crack Addict
Really disgusting...
Boston.com
By Peter Graff | July 7, 2005
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's Iraq wing said on Thursday it had killed Egypt's envoy to Iraq, captured five days ago in the first of a series of strikes on diplomats.
"We, al Qaeda in Iraq, announce that the judgment of God has been implemented against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt," said the group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a statement posted on the Internet.
"Oh enemy of God, Ihab el-Sherif, this is your punishment in this life."
The group posted a video showing the blindfolded hostage identifying himself as Sherif, but did not show the killing.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba offered condolences to his family: "If this is true, we totally condemn it, and it reveals the ugly face of such networks, who are not Iraqis but come to Iraq to spread chaos and pronounce people 'infidels'."
Sherif's abduction off a street on Saturday was the first in a series of attacks on diplomats, apparently aimed at blocking efforts by the new government to obtain the international legitimacy it craves, especially from cautious Arab states.
"We were surprised that this happened. We are Muslims and he was in an Arab country," said the envoy's 19-year-old daughter Anji, who wept as she spoke to journalists in Cairo. "He told me not to be afraid because Iraq is an Arab country."
The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Brigadier General Donald Alston, said he believed the attacks were a reaction to a meeting in Brussels last month at which dozens of foreign governments rallied round the new administration in Baghdad.
Days before Sherif was kidnapped, Iraq had announced that Egypt would make him the first Arab diplomat in Baghdad with the full rank of ambassador since the invasion in 2003.
Washington and Baghdad have urged diplomats not to pull out, but strikes on them may have rattled some embassies.
Pakistan withdrew its ambassador from Baghdad on Tuesday after his motorcade was attacked by gunmen. Bahrain's envoy was shot in the hand in his car in an apparent kidnap attempt.
An earlier Qaeda statement threatened more such strikes.
"This will be the fate of ambassadors of the tyrannical states because Jihadist Iraq today is not secure for infidels ... and America cannot protect itself, let alone others."
DEAL WITH IRAN
Iraq did achieve a diplomatic breakthrough on Thursday with its non-Arab, Shi'ite neighbor, Iran.
Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi signed a pact in Tehran agreeing to accept Iranian military training and other cooperation with the country that Iraq fought for nearly a decade under ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
Responding to the suggestion that warming ties with Iran would anger Tehran's arch-foe Washington, Dulaimi said: "Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries."
Zarqawi's guerrillas are Sunni Muslim Arabs, allied with Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents against the new Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad, although many Iraqi Sunnis reject their extreme violence and foreign influence.
U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope that a rift in the insurgency will bring more Iraqi Sunnis into politics.
A double car bomb attack killed at least 13 people and wounded 27 overnight in Mashru, near the mainly Shi'ite town of Hilla south of Baghdad, in the worst bombing attack for several days, Polish forces in the area said. Locals blamed al Qaeda.
"Only Shi'ites are targeted," Raad Hadeed Salman, a witness, shouted amid an angry crowd at the scene of the blast.
"There were no police here, no Americans and no army soldiers. Zarqawi is targeting only Shi'ites."
In Mosul in the north, where Kurds and Arabs have feuded for control, some 12 mortars aimed at a local government offices fell into a crowded neighborhood of shops. Hospital sources said at least 46 people were injured and three confirmed killed.
Iraqi Sunni Arab groups took their biggest step into the political process on Wednesday, with 15 Sunni delegates joining the committee to draft a new constitution.
The American military said it was holding five U.S. citizens, apparently including a Los Angeles filmmaker, among more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Salem Uraiby in Mashru and Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)
Boston.com
By Peter Graff | July 7, 2005
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's Iraq wing said on Thursday it had killed Egypt's envoy to Iraq, captured five days ago in the first of a series of strikes on diplomats.
"We, al Qaeda in Iraq, announce that the judgment of God has been implemented against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt," said the group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a statement posted on the Internet.
"Oh enemy of God, Ihab el-Sherif, this is your punishment in this life."
The group posted a video showing the blindfolded hostage identifying himself as Sherif, but did not show the killing.
Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba offered condolences to his family: "If this is true, we totally condemn it, and it reveals the ugly face of such networks, who are not Iraqis but come to Iraq to spread chaos and pronounce people 'infidels'."
Sherif's abduction off a street on Saturday was the first in a series of attacks on diplomats, apparently aimed at blocking efforts by the new government to obtain the international legitimacy it craves, especially from cautious Arab states.
"We were surprised that this happened. We are Muslims and he was in an Arab country," said the envoy's 19-year-old daughter Anji, who wept as she spoke to journalists in Cairo. "He told me not to be afraid because Iraq is an Arab country."
The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Brigadier General Donald Alston, said he believed the attacks were a reaction to a meeting in Brussels last month at which dozens of foreign governments rallied round the new administration in Baghdad.
Days before Sherif was kidnapped, Iraq had announced that Egypt would make him the first Arab diplomat in Baghdad with the full rank of ambassador since the invasion in 2003.
Washington and Baghdad have urged diplomats not to pull out, but strikes on them may have rattled some embassies.
Pakistan withdrew its ambassador from Baghdad on Tuesday after his motorcade was attacked by gunmen. Bahrain's envoy was shot in the hand in his car in an apparent kidnap attempt.
An earlier Qaeda statement threatened more such strikes.
"This will be the fate of ambassadors of the tyrannical states because Jihadist Iraq today is not secure for infidels ... and America cannot protect itself, let alone others."
DEAL WITH IRAN
Iraq did achieve a diplomatic breakthrough on Thursday with its non-Arab, Shi'ite neighbor, Iran.
Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi signed a pact in Tehran agreeing to accept Iranian military training and other cooperation with the country that Iraq fought for nearly a decade under ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
Responding to the suggestion that warming ties with Iran would anger Tehran's arch-foe Washington, Dulaimi said: "Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries."
Zarqawi's guerrillas are Sunni Muslim Arabs, allied with Iraqi Sunni Arab insurgents against the new Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad, although many Iraqi Sunnis reject their extreme violence and foreign influence.
U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope that a rift in the insurgency will bring more Iraqi Sunnis into politics.
A double car bomb attack killed at least 13 people and wounded 27 overnight in Mashru, near the mainly Shi'ite town of Hilla south of Baghdad, in the worst bombing attack for several days, Polish forces in the area said. Locals blamed al Qaeda.
"Only Shi'ites are targeted," Raad Hadeed Salman, a witness, shouted amid an angry crowd at the scene of the blast.
"There were no police here, no Americans and no army soldiers. Zarqawi is targeting only Shi'ites."
In Mosul in the north, where Kurds and Arabs have feuded for control, some 12 mortars aimed at a local government offices fell into a crowded neighborhood of shops. Hospital sources said at least 46 people were injured and three confirmed killed.
Iraqi Sunni Arab groups took their biggest step into the political process on Wednesday, with 15 Sunni delegates joining the committee to draft a new constitution.
The American military said it was holding five U.S. citizens, apparently including a Los Angeles filmmaker, among more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq.
(Additional reporting by Salem Uraiby in Mashru and Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)
