"What happened in Madain is only a link in a long chain of plots and slaughters, starting in Samarra, then Fallujah and Mosul ... in the framework of a plan aimed at totally eliminating the Sunni community" of Iraq, said the statement on an Islamist website. "What happened in Madain is part of this plan whose first phase is to provoke the exodus of the Sunni community from the region then to eliminate them from around Baghdad, then Latifiyah, Al-Haswa and Al-Mahmudiya, before clearing the capital entirely of a Sunni presence, by means of a forced exodus and genocide," it said. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Iraqi forces gained control of the lawless town of Al-Madain near Baghdad on Monday but failed to find any of the scores of Shiite hostages that Sunni gunmen had reportedly seized and were threatening to kill. The three-day standoff around Madain, fueled by rumour, suspicion and sharply contradictory reports, had threatened to spiral into all-out national crisis as Sunnis and Shiites haggle over forming a new government two and a half months after landmark elections.
"The hostages of Madain belong to the Sunni community and not Al-Rafidha (a derogatory term for Shiites)," the statement said, calling on Sunnis to "defend their faith and their mosques." "You have no other choice but to defend yourselves against your enemy," it said. On Sunday, the group accused Iraqi authorities and US forces of contriving the abduction of Shiite hostages in Madain.