Iraq's Baath Party Denies Links to Al Qaeda

The Iraqi Baath party denied in an Internet statement having any links to al Qaeda following rumors that some of the brutal operations undertaken by the group were carried out in cooperation with the Baath party.

"Our party has never had any relation with what's known as al Qaeda, not before the occupation nor after," the statement said. "As a matter of fact, many of our men and cadres have been victims of assassinations and kidnappings carried out by this group because of their rejection of the sectarian ideology that was introduced to Iraq upon the advent of the occupation," it added.

The Party also criticized the way al-Qaeda has been doing business in Iraq, saying that they were criminal gangs, working in collaboration with the American, Zionist and Iranian intelligence present in Iraq.