Kidnappers Give Allawi 48 Hours To Halt Assault On Fallujah
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Iyad Allawi. A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
BAGHDAD, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah.
In a statement, the group known to be Ansar al-Jihad (Partisans of Holy War) claimed responsibility for the abduction and threatened to behead the three if Allawi fails to meet its demands in 48 hours.
"We demand the agent government liberate all the prisoners in Iraq, women and men, and lift the siege over Fallujah and stop the military action against the city," said the previously unknown group.
The authenticity of the statement, published on a website, could not be verified independently.
Earlier reports said that a first cousin of Allawi, the cousin's wife and his daughter-in-law were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from their house in Baghdad.
Three cars with at least six men inside pulled up to the house in Baghdad's southern district of Al-Kadisiya, from where they took Ghazi Allawi and his two family members, an official source was quoted as saying.
US soldier's eyes were injured in the battle.
Allawi, who leads the current Iraqi interim government, was the latest victim of the rampant wave of abduction. Over 100 foreigners and relatives of wealthy figures have been kidnapped in Iraq for political or financial purposes.
The abduction followed a joint US-Iraqi all-out offensive in Fallujah, a long-time rebel bastion since the war last year, to clear the city of insurgents.
Allawi issued this week the order to start a state of emergency across Iraq and authorized US and Iraqi forces to storm Fallujah. The iron-handed move has also aroused disputes among the Iraqi society.
There has been no report of suspension in the ongoing military action so far. Allawi often made remarks that his government would not bow to kidnappers and criminals.
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US Troops Reportedly Gassing Fallujah
FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in1988 .
“The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons,” resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November10 .
The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added.
“They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to a large number of US tanks and vehicles.
“The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene,” an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press.
“Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by poisonous gases,” added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan battles, northwest of Fallujah.
In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the “horrible” weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq.
After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their cities.
Media Blackout
The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into the hands of the US military.
“Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people.
“More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by embedded journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies,” the sources added.
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday, November9 , would be decisive.
“Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters,” observers told Al-Quds Press.
The reported gassing stands as a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurdish community in the northern city of Halbja in 1988 .
While the West insisted that Saddam was the one behind the heinous attack, the ousted president pointed fingers at the then Iranian regime.
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