GAZA (Reuters) - The ruling Palestinian faction Hamas on Thursday deplored the killing by U.S. warplanes of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, describing him as a casualty of a crusade against Arabs and Muslims. | Oh glorious Allah, why do you let the infidels strike BACK???? |
Hamas, branded as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union and shunned by the West since winning office in the Palestinian government in March, had distanced itself in the past from violence abroad blamed on al Qaeda.
But in a statement faxed to Reuters after Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on Wednesday, Hamas said it mourned the Jordanian-born insurgent as a "martyr of the (Muslim Arab) nation".
"With hearts full of faith, Hamas commends brother-fighter Abu Musab ... who was martyred at the hands of the savage crusade campaign which targets the Arab homeland, starting in Iraq," the statement said.
|