An Islamic militant group responsible for kidnappings and beheadings in Iraq on Monday warned teachers and students to stop attending universities in Baghdad or the insurgents would consider them partners of the government. Ansar al-Sunnah, which has ties to al-Qaida in Iraq, set a three-day deadline for teachers, students and administrative employees to stop going to universities, saying the group has canceled all studies for the school year according to a video and statements posted on the group's Web site. The Sunni insurgent group did not say how it planned to cancel university classes in Baghdad. "In order to save the blood of our honorable teachers and dear students and after carrying out a detailed study and consultation ... we decided to cancel studies in all universities and institutes and private colleges for the scholastic year 2006-2007 in the capital Baghdad only," the group said in the video and statements, which could not immediately be verified. A man wearing a ski mask said in the video that "there have been several killing and kidnapping of (Sunni) professors and students by the death squads with direct support from the head of the government and the Shiite parties."
"The universities have been turned from landmark institutions that graduate scientists to dark dens shrouded in black and infested by (Shiite) black turban clerics," the unidentified man said in the 30-minute video.
He also referred to last month's kidnapping of some 150 people from the Higher Education ministry in central Baghdad. The mass kidnapping was widely believed to have been the work of the Mahdi Army, the heavily armed militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric. "A big number of university teachers were forced to flee Iraq because they were included in the death lists," the unidentified man said, reading a statement.
In a separate statement issued Sunday, the group said it was launching a "campaign to help our scientists and students in Baghdad universities" who the group claims have suffered under Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government.
Ansar al-Sunnah is a radical Sunni group responsible for attacks on U.S. forces, kidnappings and beheadings, including the August 2004 execution of 12 Nepalese hostages and a December 2004 explosion at a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 people.