Gunmen threaten al-Zarqawi on video

[Goldmember]

Gunmen threaten al-Zarqawi on video

By Alex Rodriguez and Evan Osnos Tribune foreign correspondents

 

A group of masked Iraqi men wielding grenade launchers appeared on a videotape on Arab television Tuesday and denounced Iraq (news - web sites)'s most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, threatening to kill the Jordanian if he did not leave Iraq immediately.

 

Calling itself the Salvation Movement, the group condemned al-Zarqawi for killing Iraqi civilians and foreigners while trying to justify his acts under the banner of Islam.

 

"We swear to Allah that we have started preparing to capture him and his allies or kill them and present them as gifts to our people," the speaker said on the videotape, an Iraqi flag behind him. "This is the last warning. If you don't stop, we will do to you what the coalition forces have failed to do."

 

The video surfaced on a day when insurgents killed four Marines, while 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in a car bomb attack near the Sunni stronghold of Baqouba. The car bombing was the first in 10 days and ended a lull in such attacks since the U.S.-led coalition transferred power to the interim Iraqi government June 28. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

 

If genuine, Tuesday's warning to al-Zarqawi would mark the first time any Iraqi militia group has posed a threat to him. Al-Zarqawi has been accused by Iraqi and U.S. security officials of engineering a sustained campaign of terrorism in Iraq aimed at derailing the country's postwar recovery.

 

The Jordanian has taken responsibility for car bombings that have killed scores of Iraqi civilians and security personnel, as well as the beheadings of American Nicholas Berg in May and South Korean Kim Sun Il last month. The U.S. has linked the militant to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s Al Qaeda network.

 

But the group in the videotape, broadcast on Al-Arabiya network, emerged from nowhere, raising questions about its origin and authenticity.

 

The prospect of a homegrown threat to al-Zarqawi has come at an advantageous moment for Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, as he is seeking to divide and weaken the insurgency with promises of a limited amnesty to low-level militants willing to turn in their superiors.

 

A coalition military spokesman said the organization of any militia in Iraq is illegal.

 

"Those who would want to express their outrage at Zarqawi and would like to ... kill or capture Zarqawi, we'd refer them to the nearest recruiting station," the spokesman said. "The law is very clear about the presence of militias."

 

Earlier assassinations

 

While a non-government Iraqi movement against al-Zarqawi would be new, it would not be the first time that a shadowy group has emerged to challenge a militant leader in Iraq.

 

In April and May, when radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and his armed supporters were locked in weeks of battle with U.S. forces in southern Iraq, locals reported that a mysterious group was assassinating members of Sadr's al-Mahdi militia.

 

That group called itself the Thulfiqar Army--after a legendary double-edged sword Shiites believe was used by Imam Ali, martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. It distributed pamphlets calling for Sadr to withdraw his forces from the holy Shiite city of Najaf or face death. It also said it had killed at least four of Sadr's militants.

 

Speculation swirled at the time about the group's loyalties and origins. Some Iraqis concluded it was a CIA (news - web sites) operation or the work of Sunnis loyal to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). Others speculated that the organization could be an effort by rival Shiite clerics, or even Iranian intelligence, to tamp down a recalcitrant cleric whose clashes with the U.S. might have jeopardized the prospect of Shiites' ever assuming power.

 

U.S. military commanders said they had no knowledge of the group and disputed any American involvement. Less than two weeks after its pamphlets emerged, the group disappeared, and it hadn't been heard from since.

 

The broadcast of the tape Tuesday came a day after U.S. jets launched an air strike on a suspected al-Zarqawi safe house in the Sunni flash-point city of Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad. At least 10 people were killed in the strike, which was the fifth to target a suspected al-Zarqawi hideout in Fallujah since June 19.

 

On Tuesday, Allawi said his government provided intelligence to the U.S. military that helped pinpoint the location of the safe house. A coalition military spokesman said it had been confirmed that the house was being used by al-Zarqawi's followers. Coalition forces also found evidence that among the 12 to 15 people who used it were militants readying suicide bomb attacks, the spokesman said.

 

"This operation was launched to terminate these terrorists, whose vehicle bombs and [explosives-laden suicide vests] indiscriminately kill innocent Iraqis and destroy Iraqi schools, hospitals and police stations," Allawi said.

 

The Associated Press quoted witnesses as saying that a Fallujah family of 15, including 12 children, was killed in the air strike.

 

Tuesday afternoon's car bombing was in a village near another Sunni stronghold, Baqouba, and killed 14 people who were attending a wake. The bombing, in the town of Khalis, also wounded 35 people, the AP reported.

 

The bombing apparently targeted local officials paying their respects after gunmen on Sunday killed the brother of Khalis' deputy mayor. Hundreds of mourners were at a tent set up for the wake, and the governor of Diyala province, Abdullah al-Juburi, had just left when the blast went off.

 

7 Marines die in 2 days

 

Four Marines were killed in security and stability operations Tuesday, and U.S. military officials also said two Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed Monday in the western province of Al Anbar. Another Marine died Monday of wounds suffered in a previous incident. The deaths bring the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to more than 860.

 

In other developments:

 

- Coalition officials said troops in the Yarmouk neighborhood of Baghdad opened fire on a car that had ignored warnings to stop at a checkpoint Monday, killing a 4-year-old boy in the car and wounding another child. The driver of the car said his brakes were not working.

 

- Also in Baghdad, officials with NATO (news - web sites) sat down with Iraq's defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, as part of a mission to gauge what role the alliance could have in training Iraq's fledgling, ill-equipped military. NATO leaders offered to assist in training Iraq's security forces during a summit last week in Istanbul. However, France and Germany oppose any training that would require NATO to establish a presence in Iraq.

 

- The U.S. Energy Department disclosed that nearly 2 tons of uranium and hundreds of radioactive items had been taken out of Iraq in a secret operation. The nuclear material, which could have been used in a so-called dirty bomb, was taken from the country's former nuclear research center and airlifted to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory, the department said.