Militants kidnapped a senior Egyptian diplomat in Iraq on Friday, according to a videotape broadcast on Arab television. It was believed to be the first abduction of a high-ranking diplomatic figure in the country’s turbulent postwar period.
The Arab television channel Al Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing six masked, armed men dressed in black standing behind a man they identified as Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, described by Al Jazeera as the third highest-ranking diplomat in the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad.
Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Baghdad issued a statement confirming that Qutb had been kidnapped while leaving a mosque, The Associated Press reported. The militants made no specific threat against the diplomat.
Calling itself the Lions of Allah Brigade, the group said the abduction was a response to recent remarks by the Egyptian government that it was preparing to assist Iraq’s interim government by sending in a team of security experts. Egypt previously had offered to train Iraqi security forces in Egypt but had not planned to deploy any security personnel in Iraq.
Nearly 70 people have been taken hostage in Iraq, many of them truck drivers and nearly all of them workers for companies helping the country rebuild its shattered economy. However, Friday’s kidnapping appeared to signal the insurgency’s readiness to ratchet up pressure on countries that have sent troops, contractors or other assistance to the Iraqi interim government.
Qutb’s kidnapping also came as the Philippine government drew criticism from the U.S. for capitulating to the demands of militants who had threatened to behead a Filipino truck driver if Philippine peacekeepers were not withdrawn from Iraq. The last of the 51 Philippine troops in Iraq left the country Monday. The truck driver, Angelo dela Cruz, was released the next day.
The U.S. warned that Manila’s decision was likely to encourage terrorists to commit more kidnappings. U.S. Charge d’ Affaires Joseph Mussomeli said Friday that “a small group of terrorists told the Philippine government what to do, and the government did it. That’s the concern.”
Militants change demands
The fate of seven Kenyan, Indian and Egyptian truck drivers kidnapped by a group calling itself the Holders of the Black Banners remained unknown. Earlier this week, the group had threatened to behead a hostage every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if the Kuwaiti trucking company they worked for failed to pull out of Iraq.
On Friday, the militant group changed its demands, giving the company 48 hours to compensate the families of those killed during fighting with U.S. troops in Fallujah.
The Egyptian diplomat’s abduction came as the U.S. launched its seventh air strike in five weeks in Fallujah against suspected guerrillas loyal to militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Local hospital officials and witnesses said the attack killed no one but injured five Iraqi civilians, including three children.
The early-morning strike was directed at a group of 10 to 12 insurgents gathered in a courtyard outside a house in Fallujah, said U.S. Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, deputy director of Multi-National Forces operations.
The target was picked using “multiple sources of intelligence,” Lessel said, and was coordinated with Iraq’s interim government. U.S. military officials had no information on whether any militants or civilians had been killed or injured in the strike.
However, family members who lived at the property targeted in the strike said there were no insurgents in the courtyard and the family had no ties to al-Zarqawi or the insurgency.
Saddam Jassim Abed said he and other family members were sleeping on the roof and in the courtyard because the power was off in the house. The power returned, and family members went inside just before a missile struck the courtyard, Abed said.
`There are no fighters here’
Three children still sleeping on the roof were injured, including a 7-year-old boy who suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his head, Abed said. Dr. Luay Ali Zedan said five injured Iraqis were brought to his hospital, including the boy and two other children who were slightly wounded.
“Believe me, there are no fighters here,” said Abed, 24. “As you can see, we are a family here, living peacefully.”
U.S. military leaders have changed their strategy in Fallujah after Marines besieged the Sunni Muslim city for three weeks in April, one of postwar Iraq’s deadliest months.
The U.S. approach now is to rely almost exclusively on air strikes launched after commanders receive intelligence on the location of al-Zarqawi’s alleged safe houses in Fallujah. Those air strikes began June 19.
Fallujah residents have criticized the attacks, saying they often have led to the deaths of innocent civilians. However, Lessel said Friday that support among tribal leaders and civilians for the strikes is on the rise and that the strikes have “eroded Zarqawi’s base of support and ability to carry out terror attacks against security forces and the people of Iraq.”
Iraq’s latest assassination occurred Friday in the northern city of Mosul, when gunmen shot to death a retired Iraqi general who once worked in a coalition employment office trying to get Iraqis jobs in reconstruction projects.
Salim Majeed Blesh, once a top commander in the Iraqi army, was shot to death as he headed toward a mosque for Friday prayers, AP reported. A neighbor of Blesh who was with him, Sami Noori, was also killed.
The wave of assassinations has been targeting virtually anyone viewed by insurgents as collaborating with the U.S.-led occupation, from top Iraqi government officials to translators working with U.S. soldiers. On July 17, Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan, survived a suicide car bombing on a Baghdad highway that claimed the lives of five of his bodyguards.
Near Samarra, a roadside bomb late Thursday killed two U.S. soldiers traveling in a convoy, the U.S. military announced Friday. A third soldier was wounded.
In the past few weeks, U.S.-led forces have been struggling to prevent insurgents from establishing firm control of Samarra, a volatile Sunni Muslim city 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Insurgents have effectively neutralized the authority of Iraqi police and local officials in the city. On July 8, they launched a combined mortar and car bomb attack on the city’s Iraqi National Guard headquarters, killing five U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi National Guardsmen. Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for engineering that attack.
Sadr condemns beheadings
Recent kidnappings that ended in the beheading of hostages received a strong condemnation Friday from Shiite firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who led Friday prayers for the first time in two months.
Speaking at a mosque in the Shiite holy city of Kufa, Sadr said the beheadings of three hostages since April, including American Nicholas Berg, violated Islamic law, AP reported.
“We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners, and it is illegal according to Islamic law,” Sadr said. “Anybody doing this is a criminal, and we will punish him according to Islamic law.”
However, in the same sermon, Sadr also denounced Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who recently ordered that Sadr’s newspaper be allowed to continue publishing again. The U.S.-led coalition had shut Sadr’s paper down this spring, a move that led to fierce fighting between his al-Mahdi militia and U.S. troops in southern Shiite Muslim cities.
“Damn you and damn the occupiers,” Sadr said.
9 killed in collision
Near Baghdad, a van collided with a U.S. tank late Thursday, killing nine Iraqi civilians and injuring 10 others, said Spec. Jonathan McCue, a spokesman for U.S.-led military forces.
The van was filled with Iraqis who were returning to Baghdad from a wedding party in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of the capital. The van was trying to pass another car and collided with the tank, McCue said.
