CORRECTED: Iraq signs military pact with Iran

Please read in paragraph one …on Thursday…

A corrected version follows.

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq signed a military pact with Iran
on Thursday in a breakthrough with a former foe, but al Qaeda
said it would kill Egypt’s kidnapped envoy and attack more
diplomats to stop the government winning international support.

Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi signed a pact in Tehran
agreeing to accept Iranian military training and other
cooperation with the country Iraq fought for a decade under
ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

Responding to the suggestion that the thaw in ties with
Iran would anger Washington, Dulaimi said: “Nobody can dictate
to Iraq its relations with other countries.”

Iraq is anxiously trying to improve its ties with other
Muslim countries to win legitimacy and undermine insurgent
support. But mainly Sunni-led Arab states have been cautious
about embracing the Shi’ite-dominated, U.S.-backed Iraqi
authorities.

Al Qaeda’s Iraq wing, led by Jordanian Abu Mussab
al-Zarqawi, said it would kill Egypt’s top envoy Ihab
el-Sherif, issuing photographs of personal documents as proof
it held him.

Its statement referred to a “sharp sword against the
infidels’ ambassador,” an apparent hint that he could be
beheaded. It included no demands or possibility of negotiation.
Zarqawi’s followers have frequently filmed beheadings of
captives for maximum political impact.

“The sharia court of al Qaeda Organization in Iraq has
decided to hand the apostate, the ambassador of Egypt which is
allied to Jews and Christians, to the mujahideen to … kill
him,” said the group. Cairo did not comment on the statement.

Sherif’s abduction off the streets on Saturday was the
first in a series of strikes on diplomats.

Pakistan withdrew its ambassador from Baghdad on Tuesday
after his motorcade was attacked by gunmen. Bahrain’s envoy was
shot in the hand in his car in an apparent kidnap attempt.

The al Qaeda statement threatened more such strikes.

“This will be the fate of ambassadors of the tyrannical
states because Jihadist Iraq today is not secure for infidels
… and America cannot protect itself, let alone others.”

BOMBS SOUTH OF BAGHDAD

A double car bomb attack killed at least 13 people and
wounded 27 overnight in al-Mashru, near Hilla south of Baghdad,
in the worst bombing attack for several days, Polish forces in
the area said. Locals blamed al Qaeda.

“Only Shi’ites are targeted,” Raad Hadeed Salman, a
witness, shouted amid an angry crowd at the scene of the blast.
“There were no police here, no Americans and no army soldiers.
Zarqawi is targeting only Shi’ites.”

In Mosul in the north, where Kurds and Arabs have feuded
for control, some 12 mortars aimed at a local government
headquarters fell into a crowded neighborhood of shops.
Hospital sources said at least 46 people were injured and three
confirmed killed.

Zarqawi’s guerrillas are Sunni Muslims, allied with Iraqi
Sunni insurgents against the Shi’ite and Kurdish-led government
in Iraq and its U.S. backers, although many Iraqi Sunnis reject
the violence and foreign influence of Zarqawi’s followers.

U.S. and Iraqi leaders hope that a rift in the insurgency
will bring more Iraqi Sunnis into politics.

Iraqi Sunni Arab groups took their biggest step into the
political process on Wednesday, with 15 Sunni delegates joining
the committee to draft a new constitution.

The American military said it was holding five U.S.
citizens, apparently including a Los Angeles filmmaker, among
more than 10,000 detainees in Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Salem Uraiby in al-Mashru and
Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)