|
Islamic clerics killed by terrorists in army uniforms { May 17 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5012634,00.htmlDefense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi has rejected government involvement in the killings, but said some killers have worn Iraqi army uniforms when kidnapping their victims. He also declared Iraqi troops will no longer be allowed to enter mosques, churches or universities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5012634,00.html
Three Islamic Clerics Killed in Baghdad
Tuesday May 17, 2005 9:31 PM
AP Photo BAG107
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Three Islamic clerics - a Shiite and two Sunnis - have been shot dead in Baghdad, police said Tuesday, a day after Iraq's prime minister vowed to use an ``iron fist'' to end sectarian violence. Iran's foreign minister pledges to secure his country's borders to stop militants entering Iraq.
Iranian envoy Kamal Kharrazi's trip was the highest-level visit by an official from any of Iraq's six neighboring countries since Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago. It also comes at a time of spiraling violence fueled by foreign extremists and rival groups of Sunnis and Shiites.
U.S. troops backed by helicopters battled scores of insurgents holed up in two houses in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad. Mosul police commander Lt. Gen. Ahmad Mohammed Khalaf claimed 20 militants were killed when U.S. aircraft destroyed the buildings, but the American military said it was unaware of any casualties.
Another 17 people were killed Tuesday - two Iraqi officials in separate Baghdad drive-by shootings, six truck drivers delivering supplies to U.S. forces north of the capital, a former member of Saddam's Baath Party and his three grown sons, three Mosul police and two soldiers in Baghdad.
One American soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol near Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, the military said. At least 1,621 U.S. military members have died since Iraq's war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The targeting of religious leaders is a disturbing development in Iraq's relentless insurgency, which has seen more than 470 people killed since Iraq's Shiite-led government was announced April 28.
Shiite cleric Sheik Mouwaffaq al-Husseini was killed in a Tuesday drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen in Baghdad's western Jihad neighborhood, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said.
A senior police officer, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that two more Sunni clerics had been shot and their bodies found in Baghdad within a 24 hour period.
The two Sunni clerics, Sheik Hassan al-Naimi and Sheik Talal Nayef, had been kidnapped Sunday from different mosques in Baghdad's northern Shaab neighborhood by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms, said the police officer and Sheik Hamed al-Khazraji, a spokesman from the Sunni Muslim Association of Muslim Scholars.
``If these measures continue, they will lead the country, God forbid, into sedition that some foreign and internal groups seek,'' the association said in a statement that also demanded the defense and interior ministers resign.
Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi has rejected government involvement in the killings, but said some killers have worn Iraqi army uniforms when kidnapping their victims. He also declared Iraqi troops will no longer be allowed to enter mosques, churches or universities.
New prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, vowed Monday to hit back against those behind Iraq's sectarian strife, which included two simultaneous car bomb blasts outside Shiite mosques in different parts of Baghdad, including Shaab, late Tuesday that caused no casualties.
``The new government will strike against any criminal who tries to harm a Sunni or a Shiite citizen with an iron fist,'' he said after meeting top Iraqi Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the southern holy city of Baghdad.
The fighting in Mosul pitted U.S. troops against militants who fled to the city from Qaim, the scene of a weeklong American military offensive targeting supporters of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, police chief Khalaf told a press conference.
Khalaf said 20 of about 80 of the fighters, whose nationalities were unknown, died in the fighting. U.S. military spokesman Sgt. John Franzen said American troops were searching for roadside bombs when they came under attack and returned fire. Soldiers in the field reported no casualties to insurgents, he added.
A statement purportedly released by al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group criticized U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Sunday visit to Iraq and her calls to include Sunni Arabs in the political process.
``The hag wants the participation of the apostates and secularists who are claiming to be Sunnis,'' the statement said about Rice. ``You should know that our (the Sunni) way is fighting you.''
Iranian envoy Kharrazi vowed during his Baghdad visit that his country was committed to supporting Iraq's political and economic reconstruction and would do all it could to improve security conditions.
``We believe securing the borders between the two countries means security to the Islamic Republic of Iran,'' said Kharrazi, adding the ``situation would have been much worse'' if Tehran were actually supporting the insurgency, like some critics, including the U.S., have claimed.
His Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, said militants have infiltrated across from Iran into Iraq ``but we are not saying that they are approved by the Iranian government.''
Former Baath Party member Kanis Mohammed al-Janabi and his three sons, aged 17 to 25, were abducted and killed Tuesday in Tunis, a village within the notorious Triangle of Death about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police Capt. Muthana Khaled said.
The killers threw the bodies from a station wagon onto a road and sprayed the bodies with machine-gun fire before horrified onlookers, Khaled said.
The Triangle of Death - which includes the cities of Latifiyah, Haswa and Mahmoudiya - has been a dumping ground for scores of slain Iraqis.
Six Iraqi truck drivers supplying U.S. forces were killed by gunmen in Dujail, 80 kilometers (50 miles) miles north of the capital, said Dujail investigative judge Mahmoud al-Fatlawi.
Gunmen also killed an Iraqi Defense Ministry employee, Warrant Officer Alwan Jabur Risan, and an anti-corruption officer, Alaa al-Deen Wazir al-Obeidi, in separate drive-by shootings in Baghdad, security officials said.
A suicide bomber targeted an Iraqi army patrol at about 10 p.m. killing two soldiers and wounding 10 others near Baghdad's eastern Azamiyah district, said police Lt. Husham Isma'el.
In Mosul, gunmen shot dead former police Capt. Ahmed Fouad and a policeman with him as they drove in the eastern Masarif neighborhood, said Brig. Gen. Wathiq Mohammed. Another policeman was shot dead later in the Maarid area, he said.
|
|
