Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group
al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ali Radi al-Haidari, the governor of Baghdad. The statement and a video of the attack were released on a website.
Australian
"Young mujahideen (holy warriors) from the al-Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers assassinated a tyrant from among the Americans' agents, the governor of Baghdad, may God liberate it (Baghdad) and the whole of Iraq," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
"We tell every traitor and everyone who is loyal to the Jews and the Christians that this will be your fate," it said.
Governor Ali Radi al-Haidari and one of his bodyguards were killed in a roadside ambush today, only a week after the official had highlighted insecurity in the Iraqi capital, Iraq's interior ministry and hospital sources said.
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A video posted by Zarqawi's group on the same website purported to show Haidari's assassination.
The footage showed a convoy of cars and a man getting close to the vehicles. Blood stains could be seen on a seat of one of the cars.
An interior ministry official said in Baghdad that a car of gunmen drove up and opened fire on Haidari's car, killing both he and his bodyguard, in the northwestern, predominantly Shiite district of Hurriyah on the road leading to the district of Adil.
The governor was travelling in a convoy that included a black BMW and several white four-wheel-drive vehicles, according to witnesses.
Two white Land Cruisers lay in the middle of the busy Al-Rabiy street. Their tyres were blown out, doors flung open, and they were riddled with bullets and splattered with blood.
Crossposted to Backcountry Conservative and The Command Post
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