http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews <http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7488416> &storyID=7488416
Al Qaeda Vows to Fight on in Iraq Mon Jan 31, 2005 01:15 PM ET By Luke Baker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda vowed to pursue "holy war" in Iraq Monday after failing to wreck a historic election in which millions of people flocked to the polls. Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq slammed the election, which was hailed around the world as a success, denouncing it as an American game. "We in the al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq will continue the jihad until the banner of Islam flutters over Iraq," said the statement posted on an Islamist Web site. Earlier, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had urged the country's rival ethnic and religious groups to forge unity after Iraq's first multi-party election in half a century. "The whole world is watching us. As we worked together yesterday to finish dictatorship, let us work together toward a bright future -- Sunnis and Shi'ites, Muslims and Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen." But he warned in a televised speech that violence had not ended. The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera aired a videotape Monday purporting to show insurgents shooting down a British military transport plane that crashed in Iraq. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the tape. British officials declined comment. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said earlier 10 servicemen were believed to have died in the crash Sunday. Allawi, a contender to be renamed prime minister, is keen to build popular support after a poll in which election officials estimate eight million Iraqis voted, confounding predictions many would be scared away by insurgent threats of a bloodbath. Yet while the election day onslaught of suicide bombers and mortars was less bloody than expected, Allawi was not alone in predicting more violence. "If I were an insurgent I would be really bitterly disappointed at what happened yesterday," said a U.S. diplomat. "I certainly wouldn't conclude I should surrender. I would conclude that I have to show I'm still a player," he said. VIDEO PURPORTS TO SHOW DOWNING OF PLANE The video shown on Al Jazeera was issued by the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a known militant group. It showed an explosion at a distance and burning debris of a what appeared to be a plane on the ground filmed at close range. The crash of a Hercules transport plane was the deadliest single incident of the war for Britain. Analysts said an insurgent attack could well have caused the crash. Also Monday, three U.S. Marines were killed in action south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Although Iraqis queued up enthusiastically to cast their ballots in many places Sunday, numbers appeared to be low in Sunni Arab areas where the insurgency is strongest -- highlighting the communal rifts facing a new government. Shi'ites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's population, are widely expected to have won most votes in the election, and officials in the top Shi'ite-led coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, have already claimed a degree of victory. Shi'ite leaders quickly declared they would bring the Sunni minority, dominant under Saddam, into the fold. President Bush urged Iraq's interim leadership to include Sunnis in the political process whether or not they voted. Across much of Iraq there was a sense of accomplishment after Sunday's vote, with many people displaying index fingers stained with purple polling ink, proud to have braved insurgent threats against the first multi-party poll in 50 years. Militants tried to make good on their vow to drench the poll in blood, killing 35 people in suicide bomb and mortar attacks, but the death toll was far below what some had feared. Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib attributed the relative calm to a three-day security blitz, in which he said more than 200 suspected insurgents had been detained countrywide. WARNINGS OF INSURGENT THREAT Praise for the vote poured in from around the world, but there were also words of caution. Paul Bremer, the U.S. governor of Iraq until June last year, hailed the vote as a victory for democracy and said it had proved skeptics wrong. But he warned violence had not ended. "I am sure the insurgents, since they were anti-democratic, won't respect the results of these democratic elections and so we will continue to have violence," he said. While in some Sunni Arab areas many queued through the day to vote Sunday, in other towns, notably Baiji, Ramadi and Samarra, almost no voters pitched up. On the other hand, in the Shi'ite south and Kurdish north, turnout was very strong. Electoral officials said a first round of counting had ended and a second stage begun. (Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond in Dubai, Lin Noueihed in Najaf, Gideon Long, Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Mariam Karouny in Baghdad, and Paul Majendie in London) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. 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