Call to kill Sunni officials "is al-Qaeda defeat" (Roundup)

Sep 11, 2008, 14:30 GMT

Baghdad - The government of Iraq responded angrily on Thursday to calls by the leader of an al-Qaeda-linked organization to have the country's top Sunni officials killed, local media said.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq militia, had said on Wednesday that Iraq's top Sunni officials, including Vice-President Tareq al-Hashimi, should be killed because they were working 'against Islam and in support of the American occupation.'

However government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that 'the call by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi to assassinate Iraqi officials, specifically Vice-President Tarek al- Hashimi, is a clear sign of its failure and its defeat in front of Iraqis and their national unity.'

Al-Baghdadi had reportedly given members of al-Hashimi's Islamic Party 15 days to announce 'repentance' for all except five people who, he said, must be killed as soon as possible. Al-Baghdadi included al-Hashemi among those five.

The Iraqi Islamic party is a Sunni political party, currently part of the government, of Nuri al-Maliki. Party general secretary al- Hashemi is one of Iraq's two vice-presidents.

The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella organization of a number of Iraqi insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In a separate development, a major Iraqi political party has called on the Iraqi government to integrate the so-called Awakening Councils into the country's regular security forces.

A spokesman for the Iraqi National Accord Front (NAF), a mainly Sunni Islamist coalition, said that the Awakening Councils, which were instrumental in bringing the Sunni resistance into the pro-US fold and in beating back al-Qaeda, should be brought into the political mainstream.

'Integrating the Awakening Councils into the Iraqi security forces is a demand by our front and a reward for the Awakenings Councils' efforts,' wrote Selim Abdellah in a statement published on the NAF's website late on Wednesday.

The Awakening Councils (also known as Sons of Iraq) are some 99,000 Sunni tribe members, who, repulsed by al-Qaeda's killings of civilians, allied themselves with US forces. They crushed al-Qaeda militants and succeeded in expelling a large number of militants since 2005.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki previously made a commitment to integrate 20 per cent of the Awakenings Councils in the Iraqi security forces.

However, the Iraqi Defence Ministry had also said that it planned to disband the Awakening Councils as a military force, to prevent it becoming a separate military entity.

Meanwhile, in the restive Diyala province, unknown gunmen, believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda, shot dead clan chief Sheikh Oklan al-Gilaili, along with his son in a raid on their home, reported VOI. Diyala is 57 kilometres north-east of Baghdad.