OT: Militant Vows to Assassinate Iraq Premier

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

If there is any doubt in anyone's mind what the goals of the Islamic

terrorists networks are .. and how long they are willing to continue to

commit acts of barbarism to attain those goals ... this statement from

one of the top leaders should clear up that doubt. Anyone who thinks

these people are willing to negotiate or cease their Holy Mission does

not understand the Islamic Fundamentalist mind .. but they can still

rest assured that those who do understand it will do all they can to

protect them anyway. Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Militant Vows to Assassinate Iraq Premier

By ROBERT H. REID

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's interim prime minister said Wednesday he was

determined to confront the mastermind of bombings and beheadings who

threatened to assassinate him, and the U.S. military said it killed 20

foreign fighters at the suspected terrorist's hideout.

 

A recording purportedly made by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab

al-Zarqawi threatened to kill interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and

fight the Americans " until Islamic rule is back on Earth. "

 

The audio was found Wednesday on an Islamic Web site from the group that

claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas

Berg and Kim Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found

Tuesday between Baghdad and Fallujah.

 

After the slaying, U.S. forces launched an airstrike on what the

Americans said was an al-Zarqawi hideout in Fallujah. A senior coalition

military official said 20 foreign fighters and terrorists were believed

to have been killed in the Tuesday night strike. The official briefed

reporters on condition of anonymity.

 

Dr. Loai Ali Zeidan at Fallujah Hospital put the death toll at three

with nine wounded. It was the second U.S. airstrike on Fallujah since

Saturday.

 

" In both cases, we believe we hit significant numbers of al-Zarqawi

lieutenants and al-Zarqawi fighters, " said another official, Brig. Gen.

Mark Kimmitt. The airstrikes also destroyed large ammunition stores,

Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, said Wednesday in an

interview with Associated Press Television News.

 

In the audiotape, the speaker thought to be al-Zarqawi told Allawi that

" we will continue the game with you until the end. " The speaker said

" we will not get bored " until " we make you drink from the same glass " as

Izzadine Saleem, the Iraqi Governing Council president killed last month

in a car-bombing claimed by al-Zarqawi's group.

 

" We will carry on our jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab

apostate until Islamic rule is back on Earth, " the voice said.

 

An official with Allawi's office dismissed the threat, saying it would

not derail the transfer of sovereignty next week.

 

President Bush called Allawi to " reiterate his commitment to the Iraqi

people, " said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. During the call,

which was scheduled before the al-Zarqawi statement, Allawi raised the

topic of the assassination threat, McClellan said.

 

McClellan did not provide Bush's response but said Allawi " is determined

to confront these terrorist threats. "

 

(IN FACT .. ALLAWI STATED .. that al-Zarqawi was not just his enemy, but

also the enemy of the Iraqi people and all decent Moslems in the world.)

 

South Koreans reacted with sorrow and anger to Kim's beheading

Wednesday, with President Roh Moo-hyun calling it a " crime against

humanity. "

 

Kim's body was found two days after he appeared on a videotape broadcast

by Al-Jazeera television, pleading " I don't want to die, " and begging

his government to pull its soldiers out of Iraq.

 

South Korea refused and said it would go ahead with plans to send

another 3,000 forces here by August, which will make it the

third-largest troop contributor after the United States and Britain.

 

" When we think of his desperate appeals for life, our hearts are

wrenched with grief, " Roh said Wednesday in a national address.

 

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded near Baghdad's Kindi Hospital on

Wednesday, killing a policeman who was handling the bomb and a mother

and her child who were riding in a taxi, Iraqi police said. Another man,

his shirt off, was seen being led away in handcuffs.

 

In Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad, gunmen

killed two policemen and wounded a third in a drive-by shooting,

witnesses said.

 

A roadside bomb also exploded as an Iraqi National Guard patrol passed

in the northern city of Mosul, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding

four others, the U.S. military said.

 

The beheading of Kim, 33, who worked for a South Korean company

providing supplies to U.S. forces, stunned South Korea and prompted

Seoul to order all nonessential civilians to leave Iraq as soon as possible.

 

Late Tuesday, Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape of a terrified Kim

kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those

issued to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

Kim's shoulders were heaving, his mouth open and moving as if he were

gulping air and sobbing. Five hooded and armed men stood behind him, one

with a big knife slipped in his belt.

 

One of the masked men read a statement addressed to the Korean people:

" This is what your hands have committed. Your army has not come here for

the sake of Iraqis, but for cursed America. " South Korea is a U.S. ally

in Iraq.

 

Al-Jazeera did not show the actual beheading, saying it was too graphic.

 

American troops found Kim's body between Baghdad and Fallujah, South

Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said. It was identified

by a photograph sent by e-mail to the South Korean Embassy.

 

The killing and kidnapping was claimed by al-Zarqawi's group, Tawhid and

Jihad.

 

The grisly killing followed the similar slayings of Berg and American

helicopter technician Paul M. Johnson Jr., 49, who was beheaded by

al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia. An al-Qaida group claiming

responsibility posted an Internet message that showed photographs of

Johnson's severed head.

 

Also Tuesday, two American soldiers were killed and another wounded in

an attack on a convoy near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The dean of

the University of Mosul law school was murdered in another attack

against the country's intellectual elite. Gunmen also killed two Iraqi

women working as translators for British forces in Basra, Iraqi

officials said.

 

In other developments:

 

Iraqi engineers said they had resumed pumping crude oil through an

export pipeline between northern Iraq and Turkey that was attacked last

month. Officials with the State Oil Marketing Organization said they

were unaware the pipeline was back up.

 

Top followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rejected an

invitation to join a national conference that will select a council to

advise Iraq's interim government.

 

NATO allies at a summit in Turkey this weekend will consider a request

from Allawi for training and other technical assistance but not troops,

an alliance spokesman said.

 

06/23/04 13:01

 

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