Al-Qaida leader vows revenge
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Al-Qaida’s new leader in Iraq called on insurgent groups to unite against the U.S. occupation and vowed to avenge the death of his predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to an audiotape broadcast on an Arabic television network Thursday night.
It is believed to be the first taped message by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, and it arrives exactly three months after the death of Zarqawi in a U.S. air strike June 7.
“Our enemy has unified its ranks against us. Isn’t it time to get together, worshippers of God?” said the speaker in a brief excerpt played on Qatar-based al-Jazeera, which identified him as Muhajer. In the tape, Muhajer said he was confident his group would emerge victorious and called upon all mujahedeen, or freedom fighters, to gather ranks against their common enemy.
According to U.S. officials, Muhajer is an Egyptian whose nom de guerre is Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Unknown before he was anointed leader of al-Qaida’s operations in Iraq after al-Zarqawi’s death, he is believed to be an explosives expert who trained alongside al-Zarqawi in the Afghanistan training camps run by Osama bin Laden.
The al-Qaida message arrived on a mixed and emotional day for Iraq. U.S. troops formally turned over command of the Iraqi forces to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a move U.S. officials view as a critical milestone toward the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But the handover was overshadowed by a barrage of violence, including three suicide bombings, that largely targeted Iraqi police across Baghdad, killing 14 people and wounding scores.
The assaults underscored the fragile security conditions that face al-Maliki and the forces that are now under his command. At Thursday’s handover ceremony, he vowed to stop the surge in terrorist attacks that plague the nation daily.
“This is the message I have for the terrorists: We will see that you get great punishment wherever you are,” he said. “There is nothing for you but prison and punishment.”
Meanwhile, Sunni Arab political parties accused their Shiite counterparts Thursday of trying to divide Iraq at the expense of Sunnis. The allegations were hurled during a legislative session after the largest Shiite party turned in a draft bill that called for Iraq to be carved up into a three-way federal system. The bill included the creation of an autonomous region in the south where Shiite Muslims comprise by far the vast majority of the population.