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al-Qaida in Iraq threaten diplomats
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-04 20:35
Late Thursday, a U.S. soldier also died near Talil, 170 miles southeast of
Baghdad, the military said. The death, apparently of non-hostile causes, brought
to at least 2,038 the number of U.S. military service members who have died
since the Iraq conflict began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count.
The al-Qaida threat to foreign diplomats was contained in a statement posted
on an Islamic Web site. It was posted one day after the country's most feared
terror group announced it had condemned two Moroccan embassy employees to death.
"We are renewing our threat to those so-called diplomatic missions who have
insisted on staying in Baghdad and have not yet realized the repercussions of
such a challenge to the will of the mujahedeen," the Friday statement said.
Last July, al-Qaida in Iraq kidnapped and killed two Algerian and one
Egyptian diplomat in an apparent campaign to prevent Arab and Islamic countries
from strengthening ties to the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. Senior envoys from
Pakistan and Bahrain also escaped kidnap attempts. More than 40 diplomatic
missions are currently in Iraq.
The latest al-Qaida statement appeared as majority Shiites began the
three-day religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends a month of fasting during
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Most of Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs began to celebrate Eid on Thursday —
based on their different interpretation of the lunar calendar. In war-torn
cities such as Baghdad, Sunnis marked the holiday by dressing up, taking their
children to local amusement parks, and serving lavish meals to friends and
relatives at their homes.
Shiites did the same thing on Friday.
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