THE head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, lashed out at contacts between some rebels and US officials, in a new voice message attributed to him today. Iraq's most wanted man, who has a $US25 million bounty on his head, also announced the creation of a new unit to take on Shiite foes and vowed to go to the Palestinian territories to continue the fight after "victory" had been won in Iraq.
"The enemy is experiencing its worst days on the earth of Mesopotamia, at a time when a member of the US Congress has said that the United States are losing the war in Iraq," said the voice message on an internet site, without giving further explanation. "Some people want to stop our jihad (holy war) in Mesopotamia," the voice said, referring to the contacts that have taken place between insurgents in Iraq and US officials.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the message, which comes two days after a newly named "spokesman" for two Iraqi insurgent groups asked the US Congress to make an "official" offer for negotiations. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has confirmed that contacts have taken place between Washington and elements from the insurgency but has also made it clear that the United States has never talked with Zarqawi.
Zarqawi, whose insurgency is conducted by mainly Sunni militants, said he was creating a new brigade, called "Brigade Omar" to take on its opponents within Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community. The new brigade would "seek to remove the symbols and the members of the brigades of treason, the Badr Brigades," he said, referring to the thousands of Shiite paramilitaries trained and supported by Iran to fight the former regime. Its parent organisation, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), says it has now been transformed into a political organisation called the Badr Organisation.
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In the new recording, Zarqawi for the first time vowed to move "after the victory in Iraq" into the Palestinian territories to continue the jihad there. "All that we want is to win a victory in Iraq so that we can go into Beit Al-Maqdes (Jerusalem)."
The voice also hit out at some Islamist ideologues, like his ex-mentor Abu Mohamad al-Madqissi, who have slammed the insurgency for targeting ordinary Iraqis as well as the international forces based in Iraq. |