Iraqis are being offered rewards for information about ZarqawiMilitant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has reportedly declared war on next Sunday's election in Iraq. An audiotape on an Islamist website purportedly voiced by the Jordanian-born militant calls on Sunni Muslims to fight against the vote.
| We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it |
It attacked democracy as a springboard for "un-Islamic" practices, claiming that its emphasis on majority rule violated the principle that all laws must come from a divine source. "Candidates in elections are seeking to become demi-gods, while those who vote for them are infidels," it said. The speaker reserved particular scorn for Iraq's Shia majority, whose parties are widely expected to win next Sunday's election. The Shia, it said, were poised to spread "their insidious beliefs" to Baghdad and Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq. A message attributed to Zarqawi earlier this week accused the Shia of taking part in the US assault on the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja and described their spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, as "Satan".