Al-Qaeda calls on diplomats to quit Iraq

[ECH1969]

DUBAI - Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq, which has threatened to kill two Moroccan hostages, called Friday on diplomats in Baghdad to "pack their bags and leave" or face certain death, according to an Internet statement.

"Let them pack their bags and leave," said the statement signed by "the military wing of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of the Two Rivers," headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The statement accused Washington's "small agents in the region," including the "treacherous Moroccan government" of maintaining diplomatic missions in Baghdad in order "to grant political and security backing that would provide legitimacy" to the Iraqi government.

The group, considered the bloodiest of the insurgent groups in Iraq, has claimed responsibility for kidnapping and executing two Algerian diplomats and Egypt's head of mission in Baghdad, Ihab al-Sherif, all abducted in July.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14939

[dubyaD40web]

1. I bet this is a fake.

* needs any good news he can get right now.

[951-Riverside]

2. Yup

Any messages with "Al-Qaeda" in it I take with a grain of salt.

[jsamuel]

3. ...

hmmm

[enigma000]

4. This would qualify as "good news" for Bush?n/t