Iraq's Qaeda chief calls for kidnap of WesternersPublished: Friday, 29 September, 2006, 01:14 PM Doha Time
DUBAI: Al Qaeda's chief in Iraq yesterday urged his followers to kidnap Western Christians in order to swap them for an Egyptian cleric held in the United States, in an audio message posted on the Internet.
He also warned of intensifying the war against the US-led forces in Iraq, while saying the terror network has lost more than 4,000 of its foreign fighters in the war-torn country.
"I call upon every free mujahideen in the Land of the Two Rivers (Iraq) to do his best during this blessed month (of Ramadan), may Allah endow us with the capture of some of the Western Christian dogs, to free our sheikh out of imprisonment," Abu Hamza al-Muhajer said.
He used the Arabic word "roum" (Roman), which is commonly used to refer to Western Christians.
The sheikh he spoke of is Omar Abdul Rahman, who is being held over the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.
"The blind scholar Omar Abdul Rahman remains in the US imprisonment facing the severest kinds of torture and psychological and physical harm," said Muhajer, who is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
The terror network chief said in the same message that the group has lost more than 4,000 foreign fighters in its insurgency against US-led forces.
"We have shed plenty of our own blood in Iraq. More than 4,000 emigrants" have been killed, he said, referring to foreign militant fighters in the war-torn country.
He said that doubles the figure killed among to whom he referred as "the supporters of good," without elaborating whether he meant Iraqi nationals or others.
But the human losses did not seem to deter Muhajer, who took over as Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq after a US air strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on June 7.
Instead, he called for launching a biological warfare on US troops in Iraq in what he described as an "all-out offensive ... to uproot the infidels and the apostates," from Iraq, he said in reference to the US-led coalition forces and their supporters among the Iraqis.
"My message to the pioneers ... especially atomic and explosives experts: We are in urgent need for you, as the American bases are the perfect place for non-conventional experiments of biological and dirty (warfare)," he said.
In the same tape, he also offered amnesty to Sunni Arab tribal leaders who have collaborated with the government if they revert to supporting the insurgency.
The amnesty would last until the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan,
"I tell those (tribal sheikhs) who stood by the betrayers and sold out their religion and honour in this blessed month: We today offer you a full amnesty," he said.
This amnesty is however "contingent to your declaration of a full repentance ... and co-operation with your brothers the mujahideen (holy warriors) to drive the occupier out" of Iraq, he said.
Early in September, the terror network chief urged each Iraqi Sunni to kill one of the 141,000 US soldiers in Iraq by the start of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, insurgents murdered at least 21 Iraqis in bomb attacks and shootings around a country in the grip of a fierce sectarian conflict.
A minibus packed with explosives drove into an army post in the largely Shia Shaab neighbourhood of Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers in an area near where US forces had recently conducted a comprehensive security sweep.
Meanwhile, a double bomb attack in the city centre killed seven people and wounded 35 more, hospital medics said, while a car bomb near a police criminal investigation department killed one officer and wounded four civilians. - AFP
