Thread: Zarqawi's Sucessor Gets the Credit

Zarqawi's Successor Gets the Credit
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago


This photo, released by the U.S. military on June ...
CAIRO, Egypt - The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed two U.S. soldiers whom the group abducted last week, an insurgent umbrella group said in a Web statement posted Tuesday. The statement, which could not be authenticated, said the two soldiers were "slaughtered," suggesting they had been beheaded by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The Arabic word used in the statement, "nahr," is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

The claim of responsibility was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements.

If true, it would be the first act of violence attributed to al-Muhajer since he was named al-Qaida in Iraq's new leader in a June 12 Web message by the group. He succeeded Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike on June 7.

Al-Zarqawi made al-Qaida in Iraq notorious for hostage beheadings and was believed to have killed two American captives himself.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the military has recovered what are believed to be the remains of two missing soldiers, but said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point." An Iraqi military official said the bodies showed signs of torture and were killed in a barbaric way.

The statement in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, said: "We give the good news ... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders."

"With God Almighty's blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court" for the soldier's slaying, the statement said.

The statement did not indicate whether any video of the killings would be released.

The U.S. military has identified al-Muhajer as an Egyptian associate of al-Zarqawi. He is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

Attributing the slayings to al-Muhajer could be an attempt to build up the image of the new leader.

Al-Zarqawi had been praised by followers as "the slaughtering sheik" for the videos of hostage beheadings his group issued on the Web. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have appeared in two of those videos, killing Americans Nicholas Berg in April 2004 and Eugene Armstrong in September 2004.

Kidnappings of U.S. service members have been rare since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, despite the presence of about 130,000 forces.

The last U.S. soldier to be captured was Sgt. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, who was taken on April 9, 2004 after insurgents ambushed his fuel convoy. Two months later, a tape on Al-Jazeera purported to show a captive U.S. soldier shot, but the Army ruled it was inconclusive and Maupin remains listed as missing.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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I do not understand the compassion for the terroist and insurgents that some of my fellow Americans feel for these brutal killers! There was more news about the prisoners at Gitmo and their rights today then there were for these poor soldiers who payed so dearly with their lives. I have spent a lot of time the last few days wondering what was happening to these soldiers at the hands of these jihadist who hate Americans. I am sure nothing I could imagine was even close to the scope of brutality they had to endure before death released them from these animals! I feel the pain their parents and families must be feeling, I know the pain of losing a child, but the thought of having to endure endless nightmares of their torture, the mutilations of their "babies"no matter how old they were they will always be their parents babies, I cannot imagine how they will come close to enduring this pain, I am not sure I could. To the Americans who would rather worry about the rights of terroist at gitmo, or the poor insurgents in Iraq,you better say a prayer of thanks to these 2 soldiers and all the others over therem because they are the only thing standing between these brutal inhuman monsters and you! You had better also hope these same terroist are not coming over our wide open southern borders, of which you seem to approve of, to live in a house right next door to you and your own children!