Iraqi leader urges Egypt to stand firm
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged Egypt on Saturday to stand fast in the face of the kidnapping of one of its diplomats and ignore militants’ demand that it abandon any plans to lend security assistance to Iraq.
“It is time for us to close ranks to fight terrorism. There is no way to budge to terrorists and give them what they want,” Allawi said in Damascus, Syria. “The only way to deal with terrorism is to promote justice and to close ranks, and we hope Egypt and the Egyptian government will act accordingly.”
Allawi spoke just hours after gunmen dressed as police snatched the leader of an Iraqi government-owned construction company.
The brazen attacks suggested insurgents were growing bolder, particularly since kidnappers scored a stunning victory by forcing the Philippines to withdraw troops to save the life of a Filipino truck driver last week. The violence also cast a pall over Allawi’s tour through the region to persuade reluctant Arab and Muslim countries to send troops here.
Militants grabbed Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, described as the third-ranking diplomat at the Egyptian mission here, as he walked out of a mosque Friday. In a video released by “The Lions of Allah Brigade,” the militants said they had taken Qutb to deter Egypt from sending troops.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit appealed to the kidnappers Saturday to show mercy and said his government was working to free Qutb and an Egyptian truck driver held by other militants.
Early Saturday, gunmen grabbed Raad Adnan, general director of Al-Mansour Contracting Co., in an audacious daylight operation in southeastern Baghdad.
The kidnappers, wearing police uniforms, set up a fake checkpoint in the Zaieuna neighborhood and stopped Adnan’s car, taking him and his driver hostage, according to police Sgt. Ahmed Ismael. Adnan’s driver was quickly released, Ismael said.
Al-Mansour is a government-owned construction company that does building work for Iraq’s ministries. Adnan, a construction engineer, was a member of the Baath party and helped build some of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces.
The 15-month-old insurgency, punctuated by kidnappings, almost daily bombings, attacks and sabotage, has badly damaged Iraq’s efforts to rebuild the country after years of war and sanctions.
On Saturday, gunmen in three cars attacked a convoy carrying west Baghdad’s police chief as he passed near the town of Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad. Two bodyguards were killed, but the police chief, Brig. Sabah Fahad, escaped unharmed, said Mahmoudiya hospital director Dr. Dawoud al-Taie.
Attackers in two cars opened fire on a group of policemen at a checkpoint in the al-Shurta district of Baghdad on Saturday, injuring seven policemen, the Interior Ministry said.
A rocket exploded in the downtown Jubairya district in northern city of Samarra killing one man and injuring three other civilians early Saturday, police Maj. Sadoun al-Dulaimi said.
In volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad, a U.S. Marine died Saturday of wounds sustained during “security and stability operations” Friday, the military said.
And late Friday, saboteurs set off two explosions on an oil pipeline about 12 miles south of Samarra, police Capt. Khaled Abdul-Amir said Saturday. The pipeline stretches about 124 miles from al-Dora oil refinery in Baghdad to Beiji, north of Samarra. The extent of the damage was unclear.