Supporters of Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, executed an Egyptian driver on a street in broad daylight, accusing him of working with United States-led forces, according to an internet video on Monday.
The grisly video showed a man identified as Ibrahim Mohammed Ismail on his knees, handcuffed and blindfolded on an Iraqi street before a masked man shot him in the head execution-style.
Ismail was shown earlier saying he worked for a Kuwaiti company identified as Al-Shallahi, which provides US forces with drinking water, and urging his compatriots not to come to Iraq or work for the Americans.
”Despite all the warnings from the Mujahedin … these apostates continue to help the occupier shed the blood of those who refuse to submit,” the militants, identifying themselves as members of Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda Group in the Land of Two Rivers, said in a statement after the execution.
On Friday, Zarqawi’s group posted a video on an Islamist website showing the beheading of two Iraqis after they ”confessed” to working at a US base in the country.
Both called on those who work with US forces to desist or face death.
”We advise those working for the Americans to stop doing so. Don’t come to Ramadi, the city of the Mujahedin, otherwise you will be killed,” they said.
After making their ”confessions” in front of a banner carrying the name of Zarqawi’s group, the video showed each man having his head cut off.
The severed heads were held aloft by the men’s slaughterers and put on their backs to shouts of ”Allahu Akbar”, or ”God is greatest”.
The footage of the beheading, in which about four men appeared to be involved, was followed by a written warning from the group that ”anyone who helps the occupying enemy in any way” will meet the same fate.
Zarqawi’s group has repeatedly posted such videos showing what it calls ”the implementation of God’s ruling” against Iraqi ”apostates” or foreign hostages.
Zarqawi, a Sunni extremist who has a $25-million US bounty on his head, called in an audiotape attributed to him on Sunday for an all-out war on the January 30 elections set to be dominated by members of Iraq’s Shi’ite majority. — Sapa-AFP