International Herald Tribune
07-08-2005
The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq said Thursday that it had killed the top diplomat in Egypt's embassy in Iraq, Ihab el-Sharif, five days after gunmen seized him on a street here where he had gone unguarded to buy a newspaper.The group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, named by Osama bin Laden as Al Qaeda's chief representative in Iraq, said in a posting on an Islamic Web site that the killing of the 51-year-old diplomat was ''the judgment of God against the ambassador of the infidels,'' and described him as representing a ''tyrannical'' government in Cairo that was allied to ''Jews and Christians.'' An accompanying video did not show the purported killing, but featured Sharif saying his career had included a stint as Egypt's deputy ambassador in Israel before relations between Israel and Egypt were downgraded in the wake of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation that began five years ago.''Oh enemy of God, Ihab el-Sharif, this is your punishment in this life,'' the Web site posting said.The killing was announced in a statement posted on a Web site frequently used by Al Qaeda in Iraq. The announcement said Sharif's ''confessions were taped,'' but the 90-second video included nothing that resembled an apology or plea. Instead, Sharif, with a thick white blindfold over his eyes and his hands apparently handcuffed behind his back, was shown offering a brief summary of his diplomatic career, in a subdued but steady voice, but without political comment.Many previous Web site videos that Al Qaeda in Iraq has posted announcing the execution of hostages have included scenes showing the actual killings, and in the absence of such scenes on this occasion there was no immediate certainty that Sharif was dead. But an Internet posting by the group on Wednesday, 24 hours before the announcement of his killing, said that it had handed Sharif over to the ''mujahedeen,'' or holy warriors, to ''face his punishment,'' and referred to ''a sharp sword'' that hung over him, implying that Sharif, like many earlier victims of the Zarqawi group, might have been beheaded.The killing, if confirmed, would be the most serious blow yet in efforts by Islamic militant groups participating in the insurgency in Iraq to intimidate other countries in the Arab world that have been moving toward fuller ties with Baghdad since a transitional government with an electoral mandate took office two months ago.Sharif had been designated by the government of President Hosni Mubarak to become Egypt's ambassador here, a symbolic step of major importance to the new Iraqi government, given Egypt's powerful position in the Arab world, and the fact that the new government in Baghdad is led by religious Shiites, while Egypt is a predominantly Sunni Muslim country that has wide influence in the Sunni Muslim world.After two carloads of insurgents seized Sharif in the western Baghdad district of Jamiya on Sunday, pistol-whipping him as they dragged him away from a news vendor's sidewalk stall, the Zarqawi group warned that other diplomats would face the same fate, a warning it repeated in announcing Sharif's death on Thursday. On Tuesday, the abduction of Sharif was followed by drive-by shootings aimed at killing the ambassadors of Pakistan and Bahrain, two other Muslim nations. Both men survived, the Pakistani without injuries and the Bahraini with a bullet wound to one hand.Pakistan, which has forged a close relationship with the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, particularly in the conflict in Afghanistan, immediately withdrew its ambassador to Jordan, saying he would return as soon as security conditions allowed.
2005 Copyright International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com
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