Egypt: Islamic Groups Condemn al-Zarqawi

[ECH1969]

Cairo, 11 July (AKI) - Two Islamic extremist groups, Jemaaya Islamiyah and Jihad, have fiercely criticised the killing last week of the Egyptian ambassador to Baghdad by al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq. "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does not know the meaning of the word Jihad," the groups said in a statement sent to the pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, in which they slammed the operations of Jordanian terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They defined the killing of Egyptian diplomat Ihab El-Sherif, who was kidnapped as he stopped to buy a newspaper in Baghdad, as a 'strategic error'.

The two groups went on to accuse al-Zarqawi's organisation of "not working for the liberation of Iraq but for the extermination of Kurds and Shiites."

"It is a strategic error killing irrelevant targets and does not help the objectives of forcing the occupiers out," the statement said. "We are astonished at the death of the Egyptian ambassador, it is a deed that we reject."

The murder of the Egyptian diplomat is the worst of various incidents involving diplomats in Baghdad last week. On Tuesday, a Bahraini and a Pakistani diplomat were also attacked.

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