Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the fugitive Jordanian Islamist who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, offered a reward of his own for anyone who kills Iraq's pro-US prime minister, in a statement posted on an Islamist website Sunday. "The Khalid ibn Al-Walid Brigade announces to the Iraqi people a reward of 200,000 Jordanian dinars (285,000 dollars) for the one who cuts the head of (Iyad) Allawi," said the statement. It was signed in the name of the "military wing" of Zarqawi's Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group.
"In the unit of candidates for martyrs, we promise before God to kill you ... and those of your clique wanted by Sheikh Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi," said the statement. Its authenticity could not be verified. Several previous threats to kill Allawi have been issued in Zarqawi's name. The premier's Iraqi National Accord (INA) party had close connections with the US Central Intelligence Agency before Saddam Hussein's ouster. A July 14 statement said: "Allawi, if you escaped the missiles of death that destroyed your house, there are other missiles ready." That was presumably a reference to a July 7 mortar attack on the INA's offices and his residence close to Baghdad's heavily fortified city-centre administrative compound. |