Iraq’s al Qaeda says it killed Algerian envoys

ALGIERS/DUBAI (Reuters) – Al Qaeda in Iraq said on
Wednesday it killed two kidnapped Algerian envoys because of
their government’s support for the United States.

The killings were confirmed by the office of Algerian
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

“The hostage takers have cowardly assassinated our two
representatives in Baghdad, Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine
Belkadi, thus carrying out their despicable threats despite all
the appeals and exhortations launched everywhere for their
liberation,” the president’s office said.

Guerrilla strikes have driven diplomats from the Iraqi
capital, undermining the U.S.-backed government’s efforts to
gain support among Arab countries. On Monday Algeria pulled its
last diplomatic staff out of its embassy in Baghdad.

An al Qaeda statement on the Internet said: “Your brothers
in the al Qaeda Organization in Iraq … have killed Ali
Belaroussi, the chief of the Algerian mission, and diplomatic
attache Azzedine Belkadi.”

“It (Algeria) had sent these two apostates as allies to the
Jews and Christians in Iraq,” the group said. The authenticity
of the statement, posted on a Web site often used by the group
led by Abu Musab al-Zarwawi, could not be immediately verified.

“Iraq will not be safe for God’s enemies. Haven’t we warned
you against allying yourselves with America,” the group said.

Algeria opposed the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq although it
has in recent years become a close ally of the United States,
particularly in the war on Islamic militants.

Algeria vowed to “pursue with cold determination” those
behind the killings.

“The president of the Republic expresses his sincere
condolences to the families and the close ones of the
deceased,” it added.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the killings.

“I cannot but condemn this senseless and brutal killing of
innocent diplomats,” he told reporters in New York.

On Tuesday, the Al Qaeda in Iraq posted on the same
Internet site a video showing the envoys blindfolded.

Earlier this month, the group said it had killed Egyptian
mission chief Ihab el-Sherif who was also kidnapped in Baghdad.

Staff at Algeria’s Foreign Ministry in the capital Algiers
earlier held a minute of silence for the diplomats and Foreign
Minister Mohamed Bedjaoui meet the envoys’ families.

Bedjaoui blamed Algeria’s main Islamic militant movement –
the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat — for the deaths
after it congratulated al Qaeda for the kidnappings.