A group of armed Iraqis threatened to kidnap and murder workers employed by foreign companies in Iraq's southern capital Basra, in a videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera television. One of 11 men carrying automatic rifles read a statement to camera saying, "All the employees of foreign, Arab and particularly Kuwaiti companies in Basra are targets to kidnap and kill."
| "Cuz this is our country and we'd rather be poor, ignorant and oppressed!" |
"We warn them not to go out on the streets of Basra," he said in the name of a group called the "Al-Taf Martyrs Brigades".
| "'Cuz bein' martyrs is kewl..." |
"For us they are the same as Americans, as British and their ilk. We will make no difference between them." The hooded men, flashing V signs, saluted the brief statement with cries of Allah u Akbar (Holy shit! God is Greatest). Al-Taf is the historic name of the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala. Violence has flared in recent days in Basra where militiamen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr clashed Saturday with British troops. The video was aired after Iraqi oil officials said crude exports from Basra have been halved by a pipeline blast. |