An extremist Islamic group ordered its militants to attack key targets in Iraq in revenge for the United States-led offensive on the rebel-held city of Fallujah, according to a statement published on its internet site on Tuesday.
The targets listed by the Islamic Army in Iraq, which has kidnapped two French journalists and has killed several hostages, identified 20 specific targets including the US headquarters in Iraq, the oil and finance ministries, military bases, embassies and major hotels.
The group gave orders to its forces everywhere in Iraq to ”escalate to the full their operations… against the Americans, the enemies of Allah, their agents among the hypocrites and apostates,” it said in another statement published on the site on Monday.
”We urge all the mujahedeen to concentrate [their attacks] on the enemy’s nerve centres and to capture the largest number [among enemy ranks].”
US troops with crack Iraqi soldiers surged into the heart of Fallujah on Tuesday on the second day of the largest operation in Iraq since last year’s US-led war aimed at retaking the Sunni Muslim city from rebels.
They now claim to have seized one third of the city.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which is thought to be based mainly in Fallujah, follows the strict Wahabist school of Islam and has claimed responsibility for several abductions and executions in Iraq.
Among the targets listed were ”the headquarters for the war on terrorism,” a likely reference to the so-called Green Zone housing the Iraqi government and the US and other foreign embassies.
It also named the buildings of the interior ministry, oil ministry and finance ministry and listed military sites, embassies and major hotels.
The Islamic Army in Iraq also urged its fighters to ”film their operations… to uncover the enemy’s lies”.
Another statement by the group published on Monday on the same site, addressed ”the Iraqi people and [Islamic] nation” and denounced ”the slaughter by the infidels in Iraq”.
”Your enemy wants to split you and divide you… Your enemy is weak and terrified… Your enemy is arrogant. Strike him with all firmness. Make him taste humiliation and a bitter death,” said the group.
The group has demanded Paris lift a controversial ban on headscarves in state schools to secure the release of French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot who were abducted in late August.
Since its first statements in March, the shadowy Sunni Muslim militant group has never failed to deliver on its ultimatums and has not hesitated to execute an Italian journalist and two Pakistanis it was holding.
In September it claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt against Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, a prominent figure who has now fallen out of favour.
It was also one of two groups which claimed responsibility for the murders in March of four US contractors in Fallujah, and the gruesome mutilation of two of them.
The group only spared the life of Philippine truck driver Angelo de la Cruz after Manila bowed to demands for an early withdrawal of its troops from Iraq in July. It also kidnapped and released Iranian diplomat Fereydun Jahani.
Showdown in Ramadi
Meanwhile, insurgents took control of the centre of Ramadi on Tuesday after 24 hours of clashes with US forces, an AFP correspondent said.
The US military could not immediately be contacted for comment.
US forces withdrew on Tuesday at around 2pm (11am GMT) from Ramadi’s main streets to their bases east and west of the city, the correspondent said. – Sapa-AFP
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