'Egypt envoy killer' held in Iraq A leading al-Qaeda militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of Egypt's envoy to Iraq has been captured, the US military says. Khamis Farhan Abed al-Fahdawi, also known as Abu Seba, was reportedly held in the town of Ramadi on Saturday.
A group headed by al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said last week it had killed Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif, days after he was kidnapped. Zarqawi has been accused of abducting and killing several foreigners in Iraq. The death of the Egyptian envoy sparked a row between Baghdad and Cairo, when Iraqi officials claimed Mr Sherif had been liaising with militants before he was abducted. Egypt demanded an apology from Iraq. Attacks on diplomats A video released on a website last Thursday showed a blindfolded man claiming to be Mr Sherif saying he had worked for Egyptian embassies in Israel and Iraq. A statement on the site said he had been killed because of Egypt's support for the Iraqi and US administrations. No footage of the killing was shown and Mr Sherif's body has not been recovered. Two days after his kidnapping, gunmen attacked vehicles carrying Pakistani and Bahraini diplomats in Iraq. Both men escaped the ambushes. A US military statement said Mr Fahdawi had "served as a senior lieutenant of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and is suspected in attacks against diplomats of Bahrain, Pakistan and the recent murder of the Egyptian envoy". The US military also said it had captured a close aide of Zarqawi, Abu Abd al-Aziz, on Sunday. An internet statement, purportedly from Zarqawi's group, confirmed Mr Aziz's capture but downplayed its significance. "Every time [the Americans] take a wanted brother prisoner, they pretend that he is one of the leaders," the statement said. 'Would-be bomber' Meanwhile, two suicide bombers struck near the Green Zone in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing two policemen and injuring at least six other people. The first blast was caused by a car bomb. The second, moments later, was caused by a man wired with explosives. Police at the site reportedly arrested a third man, who was found with blast injuries and explosives strapped to his body that had failed to detonate. Separately, two policemen were killed and four hurt in a shootout in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. At least 26 Iraqis, almost all of them children, were killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad on Wednesday. The car drove up to a US army vehicle and exploded as soldiers were handing out sweets to local children, witnesses said. A US soldier also died in the suicide blast. Another three US soldiers are reported to have been injured. At the nearby Kindi hospital, correspondents reported hundreds of distraught relatives wandering along blood-soaked corridors shouting and screaming as they looked for their children, many of whom were badly mutilated. Hundreds of Iraqis have died in attacks by militants opposed to the US presence and a Shia-led government that took charge in Baghdad earlier this year. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4681673.stm Published: 2005/07/14 16:20:41 GMT © BBC MMV Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
