‘Qaeda’ website slams Iraqi council

DUBAI: A spokesman for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network in Afghanistan has condemned Iraq’s Governing Council and urged attacks on Iraqi clerics “allied” to the United States, Islamist websites said.

“We salute our mujahedeen brothers in Iraq and tell them: may God bless your jihad,” said military spokesman Abu Abdul Rahman al-Najdi in comments broadcast on the www.marsad.org.uk and http://alsaha.fares.net websites.

“Do not wait for the Governing Council, this agent and infidel, to solve the nation’s problems,” he added. “We tell all our mujahedeen brothers in Iraq: kill all Sunni ulemas (religious scholars) that ally themselves with the Americans ... and kill all satanic ayatollahs among the Shiites, at their head Mohammad Bahr al-Ulum and his like,” said Najdi. Bahr al-Ulum, a leading Shia cleric, is part of the interim Governing Council. Najdi also denounced Shia leader Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, who was the target of a foiled assassination attempt on September 8. Najafi’s son Ali said at the time that the man accused of the attack was arrested and handed over to US forces after he “confessed to killing two American soldiers.” “You will never escape Allah’s wrath and that of the mujahedeen,” vowed Najafi.—AFP

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