Iraqi insurgents attack Islamic diplomats

Gunmen ambushed two more top diplomats from Muslim countries in apparent kidnap bids that seemed aimed at scaring off foreign governments and isolating Iraq from the Arab world.

Pakistan responded by announcing the withdrawal of its ambassador.

Yesterday’s attacks, targeting diplomats fro Bahrain as well as Pakistan, came three days after gunmen seized Egypt’s top envoy to Iraq as he was buying a newspaper in the capital. The Egyptian envoy is still being held.

Insurgents were hoping to sow a climate of fear and send a message “to the Arab countries not to open embassies in Iraq and to prevent security, economic and political overtures to Iraq,” said Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the parliamentary foreign relations committee.

A total of 49 countries or entities have some form of diplomatic representation in Iraq, including 18 Arab or non-Arab Muslim countries, according to Iraq’s Foreign Ministry and country websites.

In an audiotape on the Internet, the reputed leader of al Qaida in Iraq said the Iraqi army is as great an enemy as the Americans and announced the formation of a new terror command to fight Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia.

The comments, purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, appeared aimed at discouraging armed Iraqi groups from entering talks with the Iraqi government.

“We announce the Iraqi army is an army of apostates and mercenaries that has allied itself with the Crusaders and came to destroy Islam and fight Muslims. We will fight it,” the speaker said.

It was impossible to determine whether the speaker was al-Zarqawi, although the voice sounded like ones on tapes US officials have acknowledged were made by the Jordanian-born terror mastermind.

In Amman, meanwhile, Jordanian police arrested al-Zarqawi’s spiritual mentor yesterday as he was being interviewed on Al-Jazeera television, his first public appearance since his release last week, the Arab satellite channel said.

Also yesterday, a US soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb north-east of Baghdad, the US military said. At least 1,745 members of the US military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Early today, gunmen killed a police captain who worked as chief bodyguard for a consultant to former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, police said. The attack occurred in the west Baghdad’s Jihad district.

Separately, gunmen killed two police commandos in west Baghdad’s Risalah neighbourhood while they were on their way to work, authorities said.

US soldiers captured four suspected insurgents who belonged to a kidnapping ring, the military said today. The soldiers also seized $6,000 dollars and 1million dinars in cash during the raid at a home in south Baghdad. No hostages were found, but the troops found traces of TNT.

Bahrain’s top envoy in Iraq, Hassan Malallah al-Ansari, was slightly wounded as he drove to work in the Mansour district, hospital and Bahraini officials said. Bahraini officials said they believed it was a kidnap attempt.

Pakistan’s Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan escaped injury later yesterday when gunmen in two cars fired on his convoy in a kidnap attack in the same district, security officials said.

Both envoys would leave the country temporarily, their governments said after the attacks.

A website statement yesterday claimed responsibility in the name of al Qaida in Iraq for the kidnapping of Egyptian diplomat Ihad al-Sherif.

It marked the first time the group claimed responsibility for kidnapping a diplomat. Al Qaida in Iraq, considered one of the most fearsome militant groups in the country, has killed several foreign civilians and contractors that it abducted in the past, often releasing gruesome videos showing their beheadings.

The statement made no threat to kill the diplomat and did not present any demands. It could not be verified but was signed “Abu Maysara al-Iraqi,” the name used on all claims by al-Qaida in Iraq.

Last month, Egypt became the first Arab nation to respond to US calls for Iraq’s neighbours to upgrade their diplomatic missions in Baghdad. Pakistan and Bahrain are among America’s closest allies in the Muslim world and in the global campaign against terrorism.

The diplomat attacks occurred as Iraq’s government made overtures to Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election and who form the backbone of the insurgency.

The mostly Shiite and Kurdish committee drafting a new constitution accepted 15 Sunni members yesterday after weeks of haggling.

Sunni participation in preparing the new constitution is considered essential in undermining support for the insurgents. Sunnis form about 20% of Iraq’s 26 million people but are the majority Muslim sect throughout the Arab world.