Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Islamic State of Iraq claims Mansour Hotel blast
Insurgency
(Associated Press) - An Al-Qaida front group in Iraq claimed on Tuesday responsibility for the suicide bombing at Baghdad's Mansour hotel which killed 13 and wounded 27 people at a gathering of U.S.-allied tribal sheiks. In a statement on a Web site commonly used by the militants, the Islamic State of Iraq said that Monday's bombing was a "quick response" for an Iraqi police raid on a Sunni family house in the Anbar province in which the policemen detained the father and raped his daughters.
"The ministry of interior followed the heads of infidels and apostasy who brought those disgraceful police to the land of Muslims to make disaster and destruction," said the statement. Its authenticity could not be independently verified. The Monday hotel blast undermined efforts to forge a front against al-Qaida extremists in Iraq. Four of the tribal chiefs were among the 13 victims, police said.
After the noontime explosion, which also devastated the ground-floor lobby of the high-rise Mansour, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly vowed renewed support for Anbar province's tribal leaders. The statement also identified the suicide bomber who had slipped past security checkpoints to detonate his suicide belt in the hotel lobby as "a lion of the Islamic State of Iraq's martyrs brigade, brother Abu Othman al-Duliemi."
"God accept him and let heaven be his final destination," the statement said. It also claimed the group had set up a special operation "to track down and follow up anyone allied with the crusaders or al-Maliki government." Crusaders is a term militants use for U.S. troops in Iraq.
The statement also urged other "sons of the Islamic state of Iraq" to cooperate with the group and to come forward with information about those allied with the "crusaders or the infidel government." The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella group of several insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq. Both have been blamed for some of the deadliest bombings in the country's conflict.
"The ministry of interior followed the heads of infidels and apostasy who brought those disgraceful police to the land of Muslims to make disaster and destruction," said the statement. Its authenticity could not be independently verified. The Monday hotel blast undermined efforts to forge a front against al-Qaida extremists in Iraq. Four of the tribal chiefs were among the 13 victims, police said.
After the noontime explosion, which also devastated the ground-floor lobby of the high-rise Mansour, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly vowed renewed support for Anbar province's tribal leaders. The statement also identified the suicide bomber who had slipped past security checkpoints to detonate his suicide belt in the hotel lobby as "a lion of the Islamic State of Iraq's martyrs brigade, brother Abu Othman al-Duliemi."
"God accept him and let heaven be his final destination," the statement said. It also claimed the group had set up a special operation "to track down and follow up anyone allied with the crusaders or al-Maliki government." Crusaders is a term militants use for U.S. troops in Iraq.
The statement also urged other "sons of the Islamic state of Iraq" to cooperate with the group and to come forward with information about those allied with the "crusaders or the infidel government." The Islamic State of Iraq is an umbrella group of several insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq. Both have been blamed for some of the deadliest bombings in the country's conflict.
Labels: Islamic State of Iraq, Mansour Hotel, tribal sheiks
