Iraq urges defiance in face of Eqypt killing

“Arab and Islamic countries are asked to prove their seriousness in combating terrorism and send their ambassadors to Baghdad so they send the right message to the terrorists.”

Iraq’s President promised top security for diplomats and Interior Minister Bayan Jabor, who has chided envoys for travelling without protection, said Iraqi armed escorts were always available.

Police were hunting the killers of Egyptian envoy Ihab el-Sherif, a day after Cairo confirmed his death at the hands of Al Qaeda kidnappers. He had been snatched off a Baghdad street on Saturday.

“Our investigations are continuing,” a senior Interior Ministry official said. The Islamist militants posted a video showing Sherif speaking but not his killing.

The Iraqi government has described the abduction and killing of Sherif, as well as at least two other attacks on senior diplomats in the capital this week, as part of attempts by insurgents to isolate the new, US-backed government.

Pakistan’s ambassador left the country after his motorcade was shot at on Tuesday. The same day, the envoy from the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain was shot in the hand as he drove to work.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani dismissed suggestions that the attacks on the diplomats in Baghdad would further discourage the dispatch of emissaries from Arab capitals. “It will have no effect,” he said late on Thursday during a visit to the Shi’ite religious establishment in Najaf. “Two countries, Syria and Jordan, have asked to reopen their embassies in Iraq. For our part, we will take strict security precautions to protect embassies and diplomatic residences.”

Iraq’s Defence Minister signed a military cooperation agreement with Tehran on Thursday, a move unlikely to help dispel widespread Arab disquiet about the government’s ties to Shi’ite, non-Arab Iran. Washington, at daggers drawn with Tehran, has not commented. —Reuters