Home>News Center>World
         
 

Al-Qaida says it killed Algerian diplomats
(AP)
Updated: 2005-07-28 09:44

Iraq's most feared terror group said Wednesday it killed two kidnapped Algerian diplomats because of Algeria's ties to the United States and its crackdown on Islamic extremists, reported Associated Press.

As the bloodshed continued, the Bush administration sought to keep up political momentum by pressuring Iraq to complete its constitutional draft ahead of an Aug. 15 deadline. "It's time for a compromise," visiting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the Iraqis.

The diplomats' deaths brought to three the number of foreign envoys reported killed this month as part of a militant campaign to isolate Iraq's embattled government within the Arab and Muslim world. Two other apparent kidnapping attempts against diplomats were foiled.

An undated file photograph shows Algeria's top envoy to Iraq, Ali Belaroussi, who was abducted Thursday, July 21, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in an Internet posting Wednesday that it has killed two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi, the second reported slayings of Arab envoys this month. (AP
An undated file photograph shows Algeria's top envoy to Iraq, Ali Belaroussi, who was abducted Thursday, July 21, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in an Internet posting Wednesday that it has killed two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi, the second reported slayings of Arab envoys this month. [AP]
Algeria's state radio broke into its programming to announce the killings. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika called it "odious" and cowardly to murder envoys from countries that are friends of the Iraqi people, and vowed to pursue the killers.

Algeria opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, although it has in recent years become a close U.S. ally, particularly in investigating and arresting Islamic extremists. Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, linked the killing of the diplomats to the Algerian crackdown.

Algeria's chief envoy Ali Belaroussi and fellow diplomat Azzedine Belkadi were slain because their government represses Muslims "in violation of God's will," said a chilling Internet statement posted in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The statement provided no photographic evidence of the deaths, and the statement's authenticity could not be confirmed.

Belaroussi, 62, and Belkadi, 47, were dragged from their cars and kidnapped at gunpoint July 21 in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood. They appeared — blindfolded and in captivity — in a video posted Tuesday on the Internet.

"Didn't we warn you, O enemies of God, not to be loyal to the Jews and the Christians and to stand by the side of America or to carry out its plans? We are saying it again," said the al-Qaida statement which claimed the two had been put to death.

Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif, 51, was seized July 2, and al-Qaida later claimed he had been killed, although no photos were made public and no body was found. Top envoys from Pakistan and Bahrain escaped kidnapping attempts a few days after al-Sherif disappeared.

More than 210 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq; at least 40 have been killed, including nine by al-Qaida in Iraq of other followers of al-Zarqawi.

The announced killings highlighted the perilous security situation more than two years after U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. At least 15 Iraqi police, soldiers and civilians were slain nationwide Wednesday in scattered attacks.

U.S. troops clamped a curfew on Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, after a roadside bomb killed an American soldier and wounded five others, the U.S. command said.

At least 1,782 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Samarra, site of some of Iraq's most famous Islamic shrines, has been an insurgent flashpoint since Iraqi authorities lost control of the city to al-Qaida-linked extremists last year. U.S. troops recaptured the city and maintain tenuous control.

The Bush administration has been anxious to maintain political momentum, hoping a broad-based government can lure Sunni Arabs guerrillas away from the insurgency.

A key step in that strategy is a new constitution, which is to be completed by Aug. 15 and presented to the voters in a referendum two months later. That would be followed by an election in December and — U.S. planners hope — the start of a troop withdrawal next year.

But progress toward a constitution hit another snag Wednesday when a Kurdish leader insisted that Iraqi Kurds will never back down from demands for a federal state and never disband their peshmerga militia.

American officials have pressed the Iraqis to meet the deadline despite formidable differences over such issues as federalism and distribution of national wealth.

Rumsfeld came to Baghdad to urge the Iraqis to finish the draft charter on time. "People are simply going to have to recognize that (in) any constitutional drafting process, compromise is necessary. It's important. It's understandable. It's the way democratic systems work," he said.

But Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, repeated demands for the return of ethnic Kurds to the oil-rich Kirkuk area from which tens of thousands of them were expelled by Saddam.

"The peshmergas will stay and there is no force that will be able to cancel them," Barzani also said. "It is impossible to back away from federalism."

Preliminary drafts of the constitution call for disbanding all militias formed by Iraqi parties during their struggle against Saddam. The Kurds have long maintained the peshmerga are not a militia but rather the security force of their autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

It is unlikely that the Shiites and others would accept an end to their own militias if the Kurds are allowed to keep their peshmerga fighters.



American women call for end of war
Israeli forces storm Gaza settlement
South Korean, DPRK separated families hold video reunions
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Guangzhou oil supply 'returning to normal'

 

   
 

First joint drill with Russia launched

 

   
 

Scotland bank in US$3.1b deal for BOC stake

 

   
 

China-US textile talks make progress

 

   
 

Opinion: Corruption has to stay capital crime

 

   
 

'Bird flu may cause global economic mayhem'

 

   
  al-Qaida leader in Saudi Arabia killed
   
  Iraq lawmakers work on draft constitution
   
  Israeli forces storm Gaza Synagogues
   
  Encephalitis kills 79 children in India
   
  Almost 90 arrested after Bangladesh bombings
   
  Tigers agree to review Sri Lanka truce, emergency extended
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Rumsfeld urges Iraq to meet constitution deadline
   
16 workers, 4 Americans killed in Baghdad
   
Two suicide car bombs kill 8 in Baghdad
   
U.S. accepts Polish withdrawal from Iraq
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国内精品伊人久久久久妇| 韩国朋友夫妇:交换4| 少妇中文字幕乱码亚洲影视| 久久天堂成人影院| 最近最新视频中文字幕4| 亚洲日本乱码一区二区在线二产线| 亚洲午夜国产片在线观看| 色综合a怡红院怡红院首页 | 乱码一乱码二乱码三新区| 欧美精品久久天天躁| 人人妻人人妻人人片色av| 精品久久人人做人人爽综合| 国产v片成人影院在线观看| 麻豆一区区三三四区产品麻豆| 国产欧美日韩成人| sss欧美华人整片在线观看| 国产精品日韩欧美一区二区三区| 992tv在线| 在线精品国产一区二区三区| a级片免费观看视频| 最近中文字幕高清中文字幕电影二| 亚洲欧美中日韩| 激情内射亚洲一区二区三区爱妻| 免费一级毛片免费播放| 精品国产一区二区三区久久| 另类小说亚洲色图| 美女被免费网站视频九色| 国产一二三区视频| 菠萝蜜视频在线看| 国产丰满岳乱妇在线观看| 韩国18videos极品| 国产午夜精品无码| 韩国三级日本三级美三级 | 中文字幕中韩乱码亚洲大片| 日本19禁综艺直接啪啪| 久久久无码精品午夜| 日本精品一区二区三区视频 | 秋葵视频在线高清免费下载| 免费看美女扒开腿让男人桶| 精品一区二区三区免费毛片| 免费观看亚洲人成网站|