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Al-Qaeda cell in Iraq threatens to kill kidnapped Moroccans

Atul Aneja

Government ready to reinduct officers who served in Saddam Hussein's army

DUBAI: Two Moroccan embassy employees who were kidnapped earlier this month will be executed, the Al Qaeda cell in Iraq has said.

The group said in a statement that the two Moroccans had been sentenced to death because an "Islamic court" had judged them as "apostates" who were waging a "war on Islam." "Based on this, the court decided to issue God's verdict upon the apostates and sentenced them to death," it said.

The Foreign Ministry in Morocco has identified the two men as driver Abderrahim Boualam and employee Abdelkrim el-Mouhafidi, who were working in its embassy in Baghdad. They had been missing since October 20 while driving to Baghdad from Jordan, where they had gone to collect their paycheques. The statement that was posted on a website used frequently by Islamic extremist groups coincides with the Muslim holy festival of Eid-ul-Fitr. The group said that said the two Moroccans were "loyalists of the oppressors" and their deaths should be a "lesson" for others. Two Algerian diplomats based in Baghdad had been kidnapped and killed by Iraqi militants earlier this year.

The Egyptian charge d'affaires had also been kidnapped and is believed killed.

Faced with the unabated violence, the U.S. backed government has said that it was ready to re-induct officers upto the rank of Major who had served in the army of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The decision reflects a major policy shift, for the former U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, had dissolved Mr. Hussein's army, in a bid to eliminate Baath party influence in the armed forces. Analysts say that the decision aims to stem the flow of former officers, mostly Sunnis, to the resistance, by wooing them with jobs in the new army. Several thousands of lower-ranking troops, who are mainly Shias, have joined the police and army, which now has a combined strength of about 200,000.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has also announced that Parliament would consider a bill where pensions and other benefits would be offered to former service personnel. The proposal, if passed, could benefit around 350,000 persons.

Meanwhile, seven American troops have been killed on Tuesday and Wednesday-five in roadside bombings and two in a helicopter crash. According to U.S. military figures, 2,035 Americans have died since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Militants condemned

AFP reports:

An Iraqi preacher close to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to unite and ``get rid of'' Sunni Arab extremists, whom he called apostates claiming to kill in the name of Islam.

``We should unite to get rid of people like Al-Qaeda, who say they are killing in the name of Islam, when they are apostates,'' Sheikh Hazem al-Araji told worshippers.

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