Bounty On Iraq Leaders' Heads
In a new Web posting, an Islamic insurgent group offered to pay bounties for the deaths of Iraq's Shiite prime minister and other top officials in retaliation for an offensive against a militant stronghold in northern Iraq.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which has previously claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killings of foreigners, called on its "holy fighters to strike the infidels with an iron fist."
The statement offered $100,000 for killing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari; $50,000 for Interior Minister Bayan Jabr; and $30,000 for Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi.
"What the American forces and Iraq's traitors, the tails of the infidels, did in Tal Afar is a genocide to the Sunni people in this great city," the statement said.
A U.S. and Iraqi military offensive against Tal Afar resulted in the deaths of 157 insurgents and the capture of 291 suspects. Brig. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed-Jassim, spokesman for the Iraqi army in Tal Afar, said at least six Iraqi soldiers and six civilians were killed in the operation.
It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement, which surfaced on an Islamic Web site that often posts extremists' materials.
In other developments:
Al-Jaafari toured Tal Afar on Monday — ignoring an alleged al Qaeda threat to strike with chemical weapons — to congratulate Iraqi soldiers and commandoes for successfully rousting militants from the insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border, Iraqi television reported.
The broadcast, which showed no pictures of the Iraqi leader, said he was in the region despite a previously unreported insurgent threat to unleash chemical weapons against the force of 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and commandos, backed by 3,500 troops from the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry regiment, who stormed into the city Saturday.
"It (the offensive) was a great shock to al Qaeda. They were thrown off balance and issued this threat. We will be on the lookout," Jabr said at a news conference Monday.
Militant positions were found mainly deserted Sunday and the invading force found a network of tunnels below the city through which the insurgents were believed to have fled to the surrounding countryside.
State-run Al-Iraqiya television reported that al-Jaafari was in Tal Afar in defiance of "a terrorist threat to attack the city with chemical and biological weapons."
There was no known public threat from the insurgents to use unconventional weapons in the area, but they have issued two Web postings since Friday, vowing to use chemical weapons against U.S. and Iraqi government interests in Baghdad. The threats mentioned the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy, Iraq's parliament and government offices.
Also, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq posted an audio tape on the Internet on Sunday accusing U.S. and Iraqi forces of using poison gas in the Tal Afar offensive. The authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified, but the voice was similar to other postings attributed the Jordanian-born militant.
"The Crusaders mobilized their big armies and used the most destructive and lethal weapons and the most deadly and hurtful poison gas together with their stooges," he said. "But God made them drink at the hands of the mujahedeen the different kinds of death and made them face horrible things that they will never forget."
U.S. officials have consistently denied using poison gas in warfare.
In the days leading up the Tal Afar offensive, American forces carried out a series of airstrikes and joined the Iraqi army in encircling the ancient city, about 60 miles from the Syrian border.
The insurgent fighters, thus, had plenty of warning the city would be attacked and fled the onslaught in a classic guerrilla retreat. Tal Afar has now been swept clear of extremists for the second time in a year.
"The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes," said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff for coalition forces in Iraq.
Signaling their frustration in having to repeat the assault on the city, Iraqi and U.S. military leaders vowed to redouble efforts to crush insurgents operating all along the Syrian frontier and in the Euphrates River valley.
As Baghdad maintained the closure of a border crossing into Syria, al-Dulaimi issued a warning: "The Syrians have to stop sending destruction to Iraq. We know the terrorists have no other gateway into Iraq but Syria."
A Syrian Foreign Ministry official reacted angrily Monday, rejecting the Iraqi claim as "absolutely untrue." The official SANA news agency in Damascus did not name the official who was quoted as saying, "Iraqi officials are fully aware that Syria is exerting all-out efforts to control the borders."