Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Iraq

3 Egyptian consulate staff slightly wounded in blasts

2010-04-05

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Three members of the Egyptian diplomatic mission were slightly wounded in a blast that targeted the consulate building in Baghdad, said the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in a press release on Sunday. “Terrorist groups carried out today's operations with car bombs targeting the headquarters of some diplomatic missions in Baghdad, including the German embassy and the Egyptian consulate in al-Mansour neighborhood and the Iranian embassy in al-Salhiya neighborhood,' read the release as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “Several policemen guarding these buildings were killed or wounded but none of diplomats were harmed save slight injuries of three members of the Egyptian mission,' it added. The Egyptian mission had re-started its work in November 2009 under Ambassador Kamal Shaheen, who had been appointed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Iraq four years after charge d'affaires Ihab al-Sherif was kidnapped and killed in Baghdad in 2005. The Iranian embassy had announced that none of its staff was killed or wounded in the blasts that targeted its building.

Link

Iraq

12 car bombs go off in Iraq

2006-01-01

Twelve car bombs exploded around Iraq on Sunday, including eight in Baghdad that detonated within a three-hour window, as insurgents continued their attacks in the new year. The bombs injured at least 20 people but killed no one, police said. A Sudanese official on Sunday said six kidnapped employees had been released two days after Sudan announced it would close its embassy in Baghdad, meeting kidnappers' demands. A Cypriot man kidnapped in Iraq four months ago also was released after his family paid a ransom, a relative said Sunday. In Baghdad, the first car bomb exploded at about 8:15 a.m. as Iraqi army soldiers were patrolling a northern neighborhood, wounding two soldiers, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. Seven more car bombs exploded over the next 2 1/2 hours, wounding a total of nine people, police said. One suicide attacker died. Police later detonated a ninth car bomb in a controlled explosion. Just north of Tikrit, a suicide car bomber detonated his car near an American patrol, injuring six civilians, police 1st Lt. Ali Jasmin said. Iraqi police had no information on American casualties and U.S. officials had no immediate information. Two car bombs also exploded in Kirkuk, including one that targeted an American convoy, causing no injuries, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said. The second bomb targeted a police convoy, wounding three civilians, Qadir said. In other violence Sunday, about a dozen gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing one bystander and injuring three policemen, police Brig. Saed Ahmed said. U.S. Brig. Gen. Donald Alston on Sunday said officials had expected attacks to increase after the security measures put in place for the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections were relaxed. 'We're seeing that increase right now,' he said. 'This is perceived, inappropriately I would say, or inaccurately perhaps, by the enemy as a time of vulnerability as the government transitions ... to a permanent government.' The six kidnapped employees of Sudan's embassy were released on Saturday, a Sudanese official said. 'We talked to the six of them by phone and they told us that they are now at the house of one of their friends,' said the Sudanese embassy's charge d'affairs, Mohamed Ahmed Khalil. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry reported on Dec. 24 that six of its embassy employees had been kidnapped _ including the mission's second secretary. Al-Qaida in Iraq had set a Saturday deadline for Sudan to 'announce clearly that it is cutting its relations' with the Iraqi government, or it would kill the hostages. Sudan said Friday it would close its embassy in Baghdad in an effort to win their release. The terror group has kidnapped and killed a string of Arab diplomats and embassy employees in a campaign to scare Arab governments from setting up full diplomatic missions in Iraq. In July, al-Qaida abducted the top Egyptian envoy in Baghdad, Ihab al-Sherif, and two Algerian diplomats. It later announced they had been killed. The group also snatched two Moroccan embassy employees in June and said that it had sentenced them to death, though it never stated whether it carried out the sentences. Garabet Jekerjian, 41, who holds both Cypriot and Lebanese citizenship, was kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad in August. His brother, Avo Jekerjian, told The Associated Press that he was released in Baghdad Saturday after a ransom of $200,000 was paid to the kidnappers. Jekerjian had worked for Geto Trading Ltd., a Cyprus-based company supplying food and alcoholic drinks to U.S. forces. Islam prohibits consumption of alcohol. His brother said the company contributed to the ransom, but he would not say how much. On Saturday, at least 20 people were killed in a series of bombings and shootings. Iraq's electoral commission, meanwhile, repeated a call Saturday for the country's political groups to remove from their tickets 90 former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party before it issues final election results this week.

Link

Iraq

Al-Qaeda threatens diplomats

2005-11-04

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has once again threatened diplomats working in Iraq, telling them to leave the country as soon as possible. "We reiterate our warning to those who insist on maintaining so-called diplomatic missions in Baghdad," said a statement released over the Internet by "the military wing of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Two Rivers" whose authenticity has yet to be authenticated. "Let them pack their bags and leave," said the message. The warning, which comes just one day after the group announced they would execute two Moroccans working at their country's embassy in Baghdad who were kidnapped in the last few days. It is directed at "those who still do not understand and challenge the will of the mujahadeen [fighters], and especially the missions of countries which have pledged to cooperate with the [Iraqi] apostate government installed by the invading Crusaders [US-led forces], the statement continues. "We will not spare any effort in tracking them down and punishing them, whoever they are and wherever they are, just as we have done with their predecessors," the statement says, warning that "we do not make any difference between the head of the mission and the most lowly employee as long as they have agreed to...back the criminal government of the [Shiites] and their American master." Abderrahim Boualem, a 55-year-old driver for the Moroccan embassy, and Abdelkarim Mouhafidi, who works at the same embassy, disappeared in Baghdad on October 20. Six days later al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for their kidnapping. On July 27, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it was behind the assassination of two Algerians, chief envoy Ali Belaroussi, 62, and fellow diplomat Azzedine Belkadi, 47, who had been kidnapped six days earlier. At the beginning of July, it was announced that the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq, Ihab al-Sherif, had been killed, five days after being kidnapped in Baghdad. In days following his abduction diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan were also attacked in Iraq in what were believed to be other kidnap attempts. Hassaan al-Ansari, the charge d'affaires for the Bahraini embassy, survived the shooting attempt and was promoted to ambassador by his King.

Link

Terror Networks & Islam

Bombings, Intelligence, and Speculation

2005-07-26

Speculating about issues that have to do with Intelligence can be a slippery slope. Nevertheless there are a few points relating to both the Sharm sl-Sheikh and London bombings which deserve some degree of contemplation. Ihab al-Sherif, Egypt's envoy to Iraq arrived in Baghdad in the beginning of June. On june 12th security officials in Israel were warning that "terror cells, which apparently are linked to al-Qaeda, will attempt to attack tourist hubs along Sinai's beaches via truck or car bombs and suicide bombers" (www.ynetnews.com). The intelligence was so solid that Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israelis who enter Sinai 'would be making a big mistake,' and Almagor Terror Victims Association an Israeli advocacy group was requesting the government to close the border and prohibit Israelis from going to Sinai. Ihab al-Sherif, as we know, was kidnapped by a purported al-Qaida-linked group in Iraq. Before he was executed he was videotaped explaining the divisions of Sinai 'under the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement', pointing out an area that "stretches from Taba to Sharm el-Sheikh" in which Israelis and other foreigners may travel without a visa, adding "You can say it represents about 20 percent of Sinai. " While, sure, one need not necessarily kidnap an ambassador to find this out, it is not actually in the Camp David Accords (which affirm Egyptian sovereignty over the peninsula), and the group has released the videotape for broadcast as apparently a justification for both their killing of al-Sherif and for the bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh. While the kidnapping of Ihab el-Sherif is not obviously related to the bombings, nor is it necessarily obvious that his assignment to Iraq intensified the Israeli Intelligence community's expectation of attacks in Sinai, it is by no means illogical. One thing that is not speculation at all is that, in this instance, Israeli Intelligence was uncannily accurate, and this seems often to be the case. The exactness about both the type and timeframe of the attacks cause the earlier reports (Associated Press, Stratfor.com) that Israeli Intelligence also anticipated the July 7th London bombings to deserve slightly more scrutiny. There is further reason to suppose that the Israelis may have had information about the planned London bombings, given that the man believed to have blown himself up on the Underground train at Edgeware Road visited Israel two years ago, staying only one day. A one-time, one-day visit, in and of itself, would attract the attention of Israeli Intelligence. Two months after his brief visit, two other Britons attempted to carry out suicide bombings inside Israel, one of them successfully, while the other failed to detonate his explosives, ran away, and was found dead in the sea a week later. On the same day of the attack and attempted attack, Israel released to the press the passport photos of Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif. Hanif was identified as the one who blew himself into a milion pieces, Sharif was the one who fled. How these identifications were made so immediately, and why the Israelis had copies of their passports on hand, literally within an hour of the incidents, must have to do with aspects of forensics well beyond my grasp. Also eluding my comprehension is what Omar Sharif could possibly have been doing for a week in Israel before deciding to drown himself. The well-known Israeli interrogation tactic of “waterboarding” (whereby the suspect is held underwater to the point of near-drowning), however leaves the door open to speculate that Sharif was neither successful in his attack, nor in his escape. He was quite possibly apprehended, questioned, and, as regularly happens in waterboarding, did not survive his iterrogation. While the above scenario is certainly questionable, to suppose that Israel would have intensely investigated the lives and connections of Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif, in London and elsewhere, is not open to question. Just as with their information about the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, Israel gathers Intelligence based both on leads and likelihoods; the leads and likelihoods appear to exist for Israel in relation to the London attacks, there is no reason to suppose then, that the intelligence did not also exist.

Link

Terror Networks & Islam

More links between London and Sharm el-Sheikh

2005-07-24

Car bombs at an Egyptian resort, explosions in London subways and suicide blasts in Baghdad: the terror war seems to be drawing from an ever-growing pool of recruits bound by motives and cause rather than a single Al Qaeda mastermind, terror experts say. With havens in Afghanistan under pressure and their finances under scrutiny, militants may take philosophical guidance from the likes of Osama bin Laden, but rely largely on themselves to carry out operations, experts surveyed by The Associated Press say. “They all want to be part of this phenomenon,” said Loretta Napoleoni, author of “Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks” as she explained the terror wave. “It’s not like someone is telling (the militants), ‘You bomb on the first of July.’ “ Though the attack Saturday in Egypt came only two weeks after bombs exploded on three subway lines and a bus in London killed 52 people, the Sharm el-Sheik operation would have been months in the making, experts said. The resort city is believed to be one of the safest places in the country - a factor, which would have made it harder to carry out any attack without surveillance, expertise and planning. “For an attack of this size and nature to happen in such a regionally important center destroys the image of its tight security and sends a clear message to authorities that they can be hit anywhere,” said Egyptian terrorism expert Dia’a Rashwan. “We can’t blame a small, amateurish group for this.” However, the attackers may have taken note of the London attacks and opted to accelerate their plans of attack - hoping to make people even more afraid and the terror more widespread. “It’s more about the timing - to overwhelm the West,” said Magnus Ranstorp, Director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. He said the idea may have been to “overstretch the enemy.” Ranstorp said few definitive links between the attacks in London and Egypt were likely, in part because Al Qaeda itself has been long been divided into two camps - one which favored targets on secular regimes in the Middle East while the other favored targets in the West. What’s more, no Arabs have been identified as having taken part in the London attacks. Three Britons of Pakistani descent and a Briton of Jamaican descent have been identified as the suspected suicide bombers in what has been seen as a “homegrown” operation. However, a strange twist in the Egyptian bombing investigation suggested that while all the attacks might not be related, some of them might be. A new video by Al Qaeda in Iraq showing a missing Egyptian envoy offered a justification for Islamic militants to focus on the Sinai, saying that Egypt lets Israelis “desecrate” the peninsula by entering a coastal strip stretching from Taba to Sharm. The tape, which shows Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif, who was kidnapped this month and reportedly killed, did not mention Saturday’s attacks in Egypt, but its release on the day of the bombings was noteworthy. Even so, the spate of bombings - or attempted bombings - in London and Egypt can be seen as an attempt to demonstrate Al Qaeda’s prowess in the face of the US-led war on terrorism, said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at Dubai-based think-tank, the Gulf Research Center. “They’re saying this war is not winnable,” Alani said. “If you look at the map of Al Qaeda operations, they stretch from London to Bali to Istanbul to Mombasa to Saudi Arabia and Iraq.” The devastating blasts are likely meant as revenge for Western involvement in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Alani said. The message to Westerners is, “You are not safe anywhere as long as your government is involved in this unjust war.” Though US President George W. Bush’s administration argued that it was necessary to defeat the insurgents in Iraq to prevent them from being able to launch attacks on Western targets, the war has instead turned into a recruiting tool, experts said. The constant images on Arab television networks like Al-Jazeera of dead and dying civilians - coupled with US soldiers conducting operations - has only heightened sensitivities. “Iraq has been an absolute gift to Al Qaeda,” said Paul Rogers, a professor of peace studies at Bradford University in northern England. “(Al Qaeda) seems to have no difficulty in getting more and more recruits.” In the longer term, the attackers seek to physically isolate Muslims and the West, Alani said. Some isolation will occur if the terrorists keep up their assaults. “Americans will not go to the Middle East anymore. Europeans will find different destinations,” he said. “And Middle Easterners will be very careful in going to the West.” Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who chairs the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, told reporters the fresh attacks only underline the need to study the root causes of violence. “The whole world is getting very disturbed. The frequency (of terrorist attacks) seems to be mounting,” he said. “You just cannot tell these people (the terrorists) to stop.”

Link

Iraq-Jordan

Algerian diplomats seized in Iraq

2005-07-21

Two Algerian diplomats in Iraq have been kidnapped in Baghdad, police say. An Algerian embassy employee confirmed that mission chief Ali Balarousi had been abducted. Police say the top envoy and a diplomatic aide were seized outside a restaurant in the western Mansour district by attackers in two cars. The capture follows the abduction and killing earlier this month of Egypt's ambassador-designate in Iraq, which has been claimed by insurgents. Days after Ihab al-Sherif's kidnapping, gunmen attacked vehicles carrying Pakistani and Bahraini diplomats in Iraq. Officials say insurgents have launched attacks on diplomats to try to dissuade Arab countries from raising the level of their diplomatic representation. Egypt's decision to designate Mr Sherif an ambassador made Egypt the first Arab country to upgrade ties with Iraq. The US has been encouraging Arab countries to appoint ambassadors to Baghdad in an attempt to strengthen the new state and undermine the insurgency. Forty-six countries have foreign missions in Iraq, according to Iraq's foreign ministry. The Algerian embassy employee told the Associated Press that staff had no further information on Thursday's incident. A third Algerian diplomat who witnessed the capture told AFP news agency that he had seen the attackers pull the men out of their car, without firing shots. Algerians have been beating up their own terror groups pretty good, this may be payback Meanwhile, at least eight Iraqis have died in a series of attacks by insurgents in and around Baghdad. A suicide car bomber attacked an army patrol in Mahmoudiya, 30km (19 miles) south of the capital, killing five soldiers and wounding nine. A policeman was killed and eight others wounded by a car bomb in the capital, and two civilians died in a separate attack in the city.

Link

Iraq-Jordan

US command says troops raid targets in western Baghdad

2005-07-15

BAGHDAD, Iraq - US and Iraqi troops raided houses in western Baghdad, the US military said on Friday, pressing the hunt for insurgents after the arrest of a suspect in the kidnap-slaying of Egypt’s top envoy. Scattered mortar fire shook two north Baghdad districts. The raids Thursday targeted suspected “terrorist safe houses” the Ghazaliyah and the Abu Ghraib districts, two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the west of the city, a US statement. Eight suspects were taken into custody, the statement said, and soldiers found an Iraqi general’s uniform in one location. Mortar shells exploded early Friday near the headquarters of an Iraqi commando battalion in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah of north Baghdad, police said. Three mortars also fell across the Tigris River in the Shiite district Kazimiyah, police added. No casualties nor damage were reported in any of the blasts. The raids occurred as US and Iraqi troops appeared to be accelerating the search for insurgents, including those linked to Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq. About 30 suspected Al Qaeda members were arrested in the past week, the US command said Thursday. They included Khamis Abdul-Fahdawi, known as Abu Seba, who was captured Saturday after operations in the Ramadi area west of Baghdad. A US statement said Abu Seba was a suspect in the “attacks against diplomats of Bahrain, Pakistan and the recent murder of Egyptian envoy” Ihab al-Sherif, who was abducted in western Baghdad on July 2. Al Qaeda claimed in an Internet posting July 7 that it had killed al-Sherif to punish Egypt for supporting the US-backed Iraqi government. Another top suspect, Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shadad, or Abu Abdul-Aziz, was arrested during a raid Sunday in Baghdad, the US statement said. It identified him as the operations officer for Al Qaeda in Iraq. In an Internet statement Thursday, Al Qaeda acknowledged that Abu Abdul Aziz had been apprehended but played down his importance. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a largely unsuccessful suicide attack Thursday at the entrance to the heavily guarded Green Zone, home to the US Embassy and major Iraqi government offices. The attack was intended to be part of coordinated assaults by a suicide car bomber and two pedestrians strapped with explosives. The attackers apparently planned to detonate the car bomb first. Then the two pedestrians would blow themselves up in the midst of troops, police and rescue workers rushing to the scene, US officials said. The car bomb exploded successfully. But one pedestrian bomber was killed after an Iraqi policeman shot him, setting off his explosive vest, a US statement said. The second pedestrian bomber was wounded by shrapnel from the blast before he could detonate his own vest, and was in critical condition at a US military hospital in the Green Zone, the statement said. Five policemen and four civilians also were wounded by the blasts and gunfire, officials at Yarmouk Hospital said. Would-be bombers are rarely captured in Iraq. A 19-year-old Saudi was taken into custody after he somehow survived the explosion of his fuel tanker in December, a blast that killed nine people. A Yemeni was arrested in 2003 when his car bomb failed to detonate at a Baghdad police station. There was no word on the identity of the failed bomber, but his arrest could yield valuable intelligence on the shadowy network of Islamic extremists — many of them believed to be foreigners linked to Al Qaeda. In other violence late Thursday, gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in Baghdad and another outside the Taji air base north of the capital, police said. Elsewhere, police said gunmen killed five Iraqi employees of an American base in Baqouba, 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, as they were driving outside the base. At least nine other policemen also were killed in separate attacks nationwide. However, figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press from Iraqi government ministries show violent deaths among Iraqi civilians far exceeded those of soldiers or police during the first six months of this year. Between Jan. 1 and June 30, 1,594 civilians were killed, according to the Ministry of Health. By contrast, 895 security forces — 275 Iraqi soldiers and 620 police — were killed in bombings, assassinations or armed clashes with insurgents, according to figures from the interior and defense ministries. The number of insurgents killed during the six-month period was 781, the government said. According to an AP count, more than 1,700 people have been killed in violence since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-led government.

Link

Iraq-Jordan

30 mid-level al-Qaeda captured in the last month

2005-07-15

Iraqi and U.S. forces have captured or arrested about 30 suspected al-Qaeda members in the past week, including a suspect in this month's killing of an Egyptian envoy and attacks on senior diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan. Khamis Abdul-Fahdawi, also known as Abu Seba, was captured Saturday after operations in the Ramadi area west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. Abdul-Fahdawi is a suspect in the "attacks against diplomats of Bahrain, Pakistan and the recent murder of Egyptian envoy" Ihab al-Sherif, the U.S. statement said. Another top suspect, Abdullah Ibrahim al-Shadad, or Abu Abdul Aziz, was arrested during a raid Sunday in Baghdad, the statement said. It identified him as the operations officer for al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Shadad was cooperating with coalition forces, according to U.S. Central Command. On Thursday, an Internet statement attributed to the terrorist group al-Qaeda in Iraq acknowledged al-Shadad had been caught, but it played down his importance. The statement also said al-Qaeda in Iraq denied any role in a suicide car bombing Wednesday that killed 27 people — including 18 children and teenagers and an American soldier — in Baghdad. The car bomber detonated his sport-utility vehicle as U.S. troops were swarmed by children in the mostly Shiite New Baghdad area. "Our sheik, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ... is very keen not to attack the rank and file, and he himself is the one who directly supervises, plans and direct all the operations," said the statement, which was purportedly signed by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, spokesman for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The statement's authenticity could not be verified. "Such action has nothing to do with religion," Inaam Hassan, 38, said of the attack. "This tarnishes the image of the true resistance. I demand that the terrorists be executed in public to avenge the mothers who have lost their children." Salam al-Rubaiei, 33, blamed parents of the children for allowing them to approach American soldiers. "We know how reckless these forces are and how they can randomly open fire when attacked," al-Rubaiei said. "I want to know why these forces were present in a residential area."

Link

Iraq-Jordan

U.S. Troops Kill 14 Insurgents in Iraq

2005-07-12

U.S. soldiers killed 14 insurgents in two days of fighting in a strategic northern city, the American military said Monday, and gunmen killed 10 Iraqi soldiers in the central Sunni heartland. A hard-line Sunni clerical group accused Iraqi government commandos of torturing and killing 10 Sunni Arab civilians in Baghdad, fueling sectarian tensions between the country's two major religious groups. Soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment killed four insurgents in a gunbattle Sunday, and 10 more were killed Monday as fighting raged in Tal Afar, 260 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command reported. American troops suffered no casualties, the statement said. However, insurgents bloodied an Iraqi force in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Guerrillas firing mortars, machine guns and semiautomatic weapons stormed an Iraqi checkpoint about 5 a.m., killing eight Iraqi soldiers, Khalis police chief Col. Mahdi Saleh said. About 90 minutes later, a car bomb exploded a few miles away as an Iraqi army patrol passed, killing two soldiers, Saleh said. Two soldiers and three civilians were wounded in the attacks. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks in a Web statement, but the authenticity of the posting could not be confirmed... Six civilians were also killed in the Tal Afar fighting and 22 were wounded, according to the city police chief, Brig. Gen. Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri. Some of the wounded were hospital workers, officials said. The city is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and is located along a major road to Syria, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say is a jumping off point for Islamic extremists infiltrating Iraq. Two U.S. Marines were killed Sunday by "indirect fire" _ presumably mortar shells _ in the insurgent stronghold of Hit, the U.S. command said. Hit is on the Euphrates River in western Iraq, along another major route from Syria. On Sunday, suicide attacks, car bombings and ambushes killed about 60 people in Baghdad and elsewhere. The spike in violence occurred despite an ongoing military operation in the capital, codenamed Lightning, that has sharply reduced suicide attacks in the capital. Nevertheless, Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi insisted Operation Lightning had been successful and would be followed by other offensives until "we break the back of the terrorists _ one after another." Such operations have curbed insurgent attacks, but have also angered some Sunnis, who claim their neighborhoods have been unfairly targeted by security forces of the Shiite and Kurdish-dominated government. Sunni Arabs form the core of the insurgency. On Monday, an influential Sunni clerical organization accused Iraqi security forces of detaining, torturing and killing 10 Sunnis in Baghdad. Government officials had no comment, but a doctor at Yarmouk hospital confirmed receiving the bodies, which he said showed signs of abuse. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal. The Association of Muslim Scholars said members of an Interior Ministry commando brigade detained the men Sunday as they visited relatives in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula. "The men were taken to a detention center where they were tortured, then locked in a container where they suffocated," the association said. However, the doctor said one of the men was killed and the other nine detained after the troops came under fire Sunday in Shula. Defense Ministry officials declined comment, referring queries to the Interior Ministry. An Interior Ministry official said he had no immediate comment. A U.S. soldier died of injuries he sustained when his patrol struck a land mine Monday west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Also Monday: _ U.S. and Iraqi officials signed four economic agreements in Amman, Jordan, at the end of talks headed by Undersecretary of State Robert Zoellick to boost reconstruction in Iraq. _ Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Egypt's top envoy did not make any illegal or inappropriate contacts with insurgents in Baghdad. The statement came as Iraq tried to mend a rift with Egypt after Iraqi officials suggested slain envoy Ihab al-Sherif may have been meeting with Iraqi insurgents before he was kidnapped July 2. _ Two of the 15 Sunni Arabs on a committee drafting Iraq's constitution have quit after receiving threats, committee members said.

Link

Terror Networks & Islam

An Arab State Denounces Terrorism

2005-07-10

On July 3, Egyptian Ambassador to Iraq Ihab al-Sherif went missing. Of course, the worst was feared. On Friday July 8, Cairo confirmed that Sherif had indeed been killed by -- if they won't say the word I will -- TERRORISTS. Not just any TERRORIST, but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. BBC Reports The insurgent group Al-Qaida in Iraq said Thursday that it had killed Egypt's ambassador-designate in Iraq, Ihab al-Sherif, five days after gunmen seized him on a street in a diplomatic quarter in western Baghdad where he had driven alone to buy a local newspaper. Cairo's first action was to recall mission staff. "We're taking this step basically to protect mission staff," Ahmed Aboul Gheit told journalists in Cairo. "We're taking steps to protect the mission staff???" That's fine. In fact, that is to be expected. It was the rest of the statement that we're all waiting for. How about, "We, as Muslims, are sick and tired of you TERRORIST pieces of human debris making the rest of us look horrible." Maybe, "We, as Muslims, are sick and tired of having to take time out of our busy days to explain to westerners -- not just Americans -- that not all followers of Islam are looking to blow up something or decapitate someone." You, as Muslims, have been silent. Terribly silent. Perhaps you fear a Salman Rushdie-like fatwa. Or, perhaps we, as westerners, don't understand your silence. Whatever the reason, the time has come to stand up and shout that you do not support you condemn the cowardly acts of Zarqawi and his ilk. Shortly after Cairo confirmed the murder of Sherif, the U.N. Security Council denounced the act. Great. Perhaps the World Bank can give me an answer on my home loan re-fi. "Syria strongly denounced on Friday the killing of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq yesterday saying its is a "horrible criminal action." An official source at the foreign ministry announced that the Syrian Arab Republic "is strongly condemning the horrible criminal action that claimed the life of the Arab Republic of Egypt ambassador in Iraq Mr. Ihab al-Sharif." Close, we are getting close. C'mon, say it. "While Syria is expressing her sincerest consolation to the government and people of sisterly Egypt and to the late family and colleagues; she renews her rejection and denunciation of all terrorist actions wherever they occurred," the foreign ministry source said. Finally. It has been said. Why it took this long I will never know. Jibtrim

Link

Iraq-Jordan

Al Q threatens to whack Egyptian envoy

2005-07-07

BAGHDAD - Kidnappers linked to Al Qaeda’s branch in Iraq threatened to kill Egypt’s top envoy here, as Iraq’s prime minister called on other countries to stay the course and keep their diplomats in Baghdad. But with three attacks on diplomats in four days, at least some Arab and Muslim governments were raising questions Wednesday about security as a condition for upgrading ties to the new Iraqi government, as the United States wants. The threat to kill Ihab al-Sherif, seized by gunmen in western Baghdad on Saturday, marks a dramatic escalation in a campaign to isolate Iraq diplomatically in the Arab and Muslim worlds. On Tuesday, gunmen fired on senior envoys from Bahrain and Pakistan in apparent kidnap attempts. “Terrorism is trying to strike not only against Iraqis,” Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters after meeting with Sen. Carl Levin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a critic of US policy in Iraq. “We hope that all countries of the world will stand by us, strengthen the democratic work and carry out political functions, keeping in mind the security regulations,” al-Jaafari said. The threat on al-Sherif’s life came in a statement on a Web site linked to Al Qaeda. The statement condemned Egypt for allying itself with “Jews and Christians” - in other words, it linked the kidnapping to Egypt’s announcement last month that it would be the first Arab government to upgrade its mission here to a full embassy headed by an ambassador. Egyptian officials say no ambassador has been designated although al-Sherif was posted here a few weeks before the announcement. More than a dozen Arab nations have diplomatic missions in Baghdad, but none has a full ambassador - in part because of security fears and in part because governments are hesitant to take a step that could be seen as condoning the US military presence in Iraq. In the Web statement, the kidnappers said Al Qaeda in Iraq’s religious court had decided to hand over al-Sherif, 51, to its fighters “to carry out the punishment of apostasy against him.” The Web statement was titled, “The sharp (sword) against the ambassador of infidels.” Pictures posted on the site showed the front and back of five ID cards in al-Sherif’s name. His Egyptian driver’s license and a Foreign Ministry card showed his photograph. The material appeared on the same site as an audiotape in which a speaker purported to be Al Zarqawi said Iraq’s security forces were as great an enemy as the Americans. Without mentioning Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by name, the statement denounced “that idol of Egypt” for allegedly promoting US interests in the Middle East and for allegedly torturing Muslims. “His most recent work to support disbelief (in God) was his initiative to accept the Shiite government of apostasy in Iraq by sending an ambassador to represent Egypt in Iraq,” the statement said. “This was upon the suggestion of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.” In Cairo, a senior Foreign Ministry official said the Egyptian government was “in continuous contact” with the Iraqi government “and all other forces of the Iraqi society” in an effort to win al-Sherif’s release. On Wednesday, a prominent Sunni Arab member of parliament and critic of the US role here urged Al Qaeda to withdraw its threat to kill the Egyptian. Mishaan al-Jubouri said al-Sherif and other Arab diplomats can be useful in urging their governments to promote human rights here. However, a spokesman for a hardline Sunni clerical association blamed the Americans for pushing the Arabs to increase their diplomatic representation too soon. “The issue started by mistakes committed by the occupation force when it pressured many countries, including Arab countries ... to send their envoys to Iraq,” Muthana Harith al-Dhari of the Association of Muslim Scholars said on Al-Jazeera television. “The interim government adopted this issue without providing the minimal security measures. It cannot protect itself, so what about the ambassadors?”

Link

Iraq-Jordan

Kidnappers of Egyptian Diplomat Release Statement Threatening to Kill Him

2005-07-06

EFL:BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Kidnappers of Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq threatened to kill him because Egypt has allied with "Jews and Christians," according to a statement posted Wednesday on an al-Qaida-linked Web site. 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 Wednesday, the same Web site 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 license 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 organization 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.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More