|
Three Britons in Zarqawi's gang
Three British men who travelled to Iraq to fight coalition forces have joined the terrorist group holding the Liverpool engineer Ken Bigley, according to a resistance leader with close links to the organisation. The men were accepted by followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most ruthless terrorist chief in Iraq, on the recommendation of "clerics abroad". The claim, which followed Tony Blair's warning last week that Iraq had become the "crucible of global terrorism", came amid concern among Labour officials that the hostage crisis and the wider conflict could overshadow this week's party conference. Abu Muawiya, who spent eight months in Zarqawi's Tawhid wal Jihad (TWJ) group, claimed it had attracted fighters from other Arab nations. "Three Muslim British citizens are among a handful of non-Arab foreigners who have joined Zarqawi in his war against the coalition forces," he said. As well as the Britons, a number of Taliban and Chechens were also said to be in the group, which beheaded Bigley's American companions Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong last week. A claim attributed to TWJ yesterday saying Bigley had also been executed was dismissed by the Foreign Office because it appeared on a website that was "not credible". But the rumour intensified his family's anguish. "It gave me the shivers," said Paul Bigley, a 54-year-old businessman. "I'm going through purgatory. I wake up every five minutes in the night." He fears the kidnappers may execute his brother during the Labour conference for maximum impact, just as it killed one of the Americans the day President Bush gave a speech to the United Nations. The Muslim Council of Britain, which sent two envoys to Iraq to press for Bigley's release, said Blair had assured its leaders that incitement to religious hatred would soon be outlawed. So is Blair allowing the situation to influence British domestic policy rather than foreign policy? Posted by: Bulldog 2004-09-26 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=44280 |