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U.S. launches major offensive in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-05 15:56
Husaybah, near the border town of Qaim and about 200 miles west of Baghdad,
is a major infiltration route for foreign fighters and would-be suicide bombers
entering the country.
The Dec. 15 election and the training of new Iraqi forces are aimed at one
day allowing U.S. forces to begin withdrawing from Iraq.
Friday's warning to foreign diplomats came in a statement posted on an
Islamist Web site in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq, which also claimed
responsibility for the July kidnap-slaying of two envoys from Algeria and one
from Egypt as well as the abduction and beheading of many foreign hostages.
On Thursday, another Internet statement attributed to al-Qaida said the two
Moroccan Embassy employees had been condemned to death. There was no indication
Friday that they had been killed.
"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," Friday's statement said. "Let
them know that there is no difference in our judgment between the head of a
diplomatic mission and the lowest-level employee."
The al-Qaida threat appeared aimed at undermining support for the U.S.-backed
Iraqi government within the Arab and Islamic worlds. In addition to the Egyptian
and Algerian diplomats, senior envoys from Pakistan and Bahrain escaped kidnap
attempts in July.
Also Friday, the U.S. military announced it killed five
senior al-Qaida figures during an airstrike Oct. 29 in Husaybah. The five were
holding a strategy meeting when the airstrike occurred, the U.S. statement
added.
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