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Iraq's al Qaeda says it killed Algerian envoys

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 12:59 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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