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| Iraq |
| Domestic krazed killers shrug off Zarqawi's threats |
| 2005-12-13 |
| Secular Iraqi insurgents warned al Qaeda and other militant groups on Monday not to mount attacks to disrupt this week's parliamentary election after the militants said anyone who voted would be an "apostate". The position contrasted sharply with the bloody run-up to January polls, when Sunni Arab nationalist insurgents issued their own threats of violence against voters. Sunni Arabs largely boycotted that election for an interim assembly and were thus significantly under-represented. Abu Mohammed, a Saddam Hussein loyalist, said threats from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and other groups, would not keep Iraqis away from the ballot box. "We decided to boost the political process so that our people will have true representatives in the National Assembly," he told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad. "Zarqawi is not a threat to us. We are more powerful and have a national goal to defend." Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militant groups branded the landmark election as ungodly and vowed to keep up their jihad to turn the country into an Islamic state, according to an Internet statement dated Monday. The statement was posted on an Islamist Web site often used by militants and signed by Zarqawi's al Qaeda and four other Sunni Arab groups including the Army of the Victorious Sect and the Brigades of Islamic Jihad. "This so-called political process -- and those who take part in these apostate elections -- is forbidden by God's laws and goes against our Muslim constitution, the Koran," it said. Abu Abdullah, an insurgent from the western town of Ramadi, said Zarqawi's al Qaeda militants would be asking for trouble if they attacked polling stations, as happened in January. "We will defeat them if they dare to attack the polling centres and frankly speaking, in case they resort to attacking us or polling centers, we will react strongly," he said. Zarqawi has followers who enter Iraq from across the Arab world to blow themselves up. He also has Iraqi supporters. "What is going on in Iraq these days is a crusader conspiracy and this political process is nothing but a devilish project aimed against the mujahideen," the statement by Zarqawi's group and its allies said. "We declare that we will carry on our jihad in the name of God until an Islamic state ruled by the Koran is established." While Zarqawi and his ilk completely reject Iraq's U.S.-sponsored political process, Baathists in the Sunni Arab insurgency appear to want to use the elections to gain political clout, without showing any sign of willingness to disarm. Iraqis vote on Thursday for their first full-term parliament since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003. Violence has marred the run-up to the polls, with a spate of suicide bombings and abductions of at least eight foreigners in recent weeks. Iraqi officials have said Zarqawi's al Qaeda is a major worry for security forces, which are also bracing for an increase in violence in the weeks after the election. After January's vote for an interim government, there was a dramatic surge in attacks, many claimed by al Qaeda. "We will work on reducing the possibilities of such attacks, Iraq should have a way out of this mess," said Abu Ali, another nationalist insurgent speaking by telephone from Ramadi. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |