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Muslim clerics: US-led strikes 'genocide'
US-led assaults on insurgents in Tall Afar and Fallujah killed at least 57 people, prompting top Muslim clerics to accuse the US-led coalition of "genocide" in Iraq.
"There's no question but between now and the end of the year the terrorists are determined to try to prevent the elections from taking place and from taking place on time.
"And they will, without a doubt in my mind, increase the level of violence between now and then," he said in Washington.
Italian officials meanwhile lobbied for help in securing the release of two kidnapped aid workers after militants loyal to Al-Qaeda's number-two purportedly gave Italy 24 hours to pledge to free female Muslim prisoners in Iraq.
As US-led operations to rid Tall Afar of "terrorists" continued, Sheikh Abdel Ghaffur al-Samarrai told worshippers the assault on the small mainly Shiite Turkmen northern town qualified as genocide.
"What have the residents of Fallujah and Tall Afar done to deserve these atrocities? The occupation forces are committing genocide," he said.
"They came to Iraq to kill, destroy and strip its resources. Where is the UN Security Council?" the leading cleric asked.
Calm returned to Tall Afar Friday after a 13-hour air and ground assault the previous day, which medics said left 45 people dead and that US commanders said killed up to 57 "terrorists."
"These savage bombardments make no distinction between unarmed civilians and those equipped with weapons," Sheikh Salah al-Jaburi said in the nearby city of Mosul, accusing the US-led coalition of committing an "enormous" crime.
With the town sealed off since Thursday, dozens of residents, many of them women and children, have fled to a makeshift Iraqi Red Crescent camp.
Only ambulances were allowed in and out, after passing first a US and then an Iraqi national guard checkpoint, while the military said operations "to establish security and eliminate terrorist activities" were continuing.
US commanders charge that the town is a key staging point for foreign fighters infiltrating on minor roads from the Syrian border to the west.
In Ankara, Turkey urged Washington to halt its "disproportionate" use of force and said the government was following events with "great concern."
Elsewhere, 10 people were killed in a string of shootings, including three Lebanese in Baghdad, and a translator for the US military and a former Saddam Hussein colonel in Mosul.
Two died in Baghdad's Sadr City, where sporadic clashes flared between US troops and Shiite militiamen as did a refuse collector when a US warplane fired a missile in the Sunni insurgent bastion of Fallujah, a colleague said.
The US military said coalition forces had destroyed "earth-moving equipment" being used by insurgents to construct fighting positions. Grappling with a second hostage crisis in weeks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held talks with Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar in Rome, while his junior foreign minister pursued contacts in Jordan on a Middle East tour. Yawar vowed to do all he could to obtain the release of the two 29-year-olds as Muslim leaders in Rome recorded prayers on their behalf. Italian officials said they still could not confirm the authenticity of the website statements in the name of the Ansar al-Zawahiri group claiming to hold the two women, including the latest issuing a chilling ultimatum. "The Italian government has 24 hours to reply to our demands, otherwise Italian people will never discover the fate of the Italian women hostages," snatched on Tuesday from their office, the statement said. A British spokesman said Rome was unable to comply with the demand even if it wanted to, as no women were being detained by the multinational force in southern Iraq, where Italian forces are based. "At a time of new blackmail, it is obvious that the Italian government will not change track," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told the conservative weekly Panorama. Australia's prime minister also refused to withdraw troops from Iraq after Al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened new attacks like Thursday's bombing of Canberra's embassy in Jakarta if he did not. "We will not have our foreign policy or our security policy determined by terrorist threats," said John Howard. |
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