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CAIRO (Aljazeera) --An Egyptian cleric based in Qatar and often described as a moderate has ruled that it is a religious duty for Muslims to fight Americans in Iraq, including U.S. civilians, his office director has said. But the cleric, Shaikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, said that two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq should be freed immediately. "All of them (U.S. military personnel and civilians) are invaders who came from their country to invade our country and fighting them [in Iraq] is a duty," said his office director Essam Talima on Thursday, quoting a fatwa or ruling on religious law by al-Qaradawi....

CAIRO, EGYPT - In a new video posted Thursday on the Internet, an al-Qaida militant who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan urged Sunni militants in Iraq to join the terror group and claimed the U.S. military's security plan for Baghdad has failed. Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul in 2005, said it was the sacred duty of all mujahedeen, or holy warriors, to "stand steadfast together." He called on militant groups known as Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of the Mujahedeen to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Kurdish president backed his Shiite allies Wednesday by openly supporting a militia that Sunni Arab leaders have accused of killing members of their minority. Clashes in Baghdad and other attacks around Iraq killed at least eight people as the Sunni-dominated insurgency pressed on with its campaign against the Shiite-led government. The bloody wave of violence that broke out after the April 28 announcement of Iraq's new Shiite and Kurdish dominated government has killed more than 874 people. During the spree, more than 10 Sunni and Shiite clerics have been killed in apparent tit-for-tat slayings that raised...

The Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the main groups fighting US forces in the war torn country, has threatened to carry out attacks inside the United States in the year 2005, in a statement posted on their website Monday.'This year will bring woes on America. The mujahedeen holy warriors have prepared big surprises for your sons outside America and a big surprise for you inside America,' said the statement.'The mujahedeen will take the battle from inside our country (Iraq) to yours,' the statement said.The shadowy Sunni Muslim group has claimed a number of attacks and killings of hostages in...

One is moved by a quotation from the late Enzo Baldoni, the Italian freelance journalist and Red Cross volunteer who was murdered on video by the Jihadis in Iraq this week. "Some people think I am some sort of Rambo who loves strong emotions and watching people die. I am miles away from that. I am a convinced pacifist, and for that reason I am curious to understand what makes normal people brandish guns." Poor Baldoni, who survived previous adventures in East Timor and Colombia, had stopped appearing in the Milan weekly, Diario, and started appearing on Al Jazeera, as...

DUBAI (Reuters) - The hostage takers who grabbed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni on the road between Baghdad and Najaf in Iraq have killed him, the Italian government has confirmed. "We can confirm it was him, unfortunately," a spokesman for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday. Arabic language television channel Al Jazeera said Baldoni's kidnappers killed him because Italy refused to heed their earlier deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq. "The group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said they executed the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni because Italy did not respond to their demand to withdraw troops from Iraq...

The kidnappers of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, taken hostage in Iraq, have said that they have killed him, Al Jazeera has reported.     The television station said it had received footage showing Mr Baldoni after he had been killed.A group called the Islamic Army in Iraq had claimed to have seized Mr Baldoni, who disappeared near Najaf several days ago.   The kidnappers were calling for Italy to withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq, the third largest foreign military contingent in the country, but Italy has refused.    It said it killed Mr Baldoni because of the refusal, Al Jazeera reported.    As well as reporting for Italian newspapers, Mr Baldoni...

DOHA : An militant group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq has killed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in Iraq, Arabic-language satellite news channel Al-Jazeera reported. The Qatar-based channel did not give any further information. But Italian sources in Iraq confirmed the Al-Jazeera report of Baldoni's death to Italy's Ansa news agency. "These are horrifying pictures," said one Italian source who had seen the videotape purportedly sent by Baldoni's kidnappers to Al-Jazeera. An Italian civil servant was heading for Qatar to obtain a copy of the video, Ansa said. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reacted immediately Baldoni's death had...

Italian journalist executed 27/08/2004 00:06 - (SA) Doha - An Islamist group has executed Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in Iraq, Arabic-language satellite news channel Al-Jazeera reported on Thursday. Baldoni's captors, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, had on Tuesday threatened to kill their hostage unless Italy withdrew its 3 000 troops from Iraq within 48 hours.

A video showing the execution of an American hostage was posted on a website today, and the Islamic Army of Iraq claimed the victim was Jamestown, N.D., native Ronald Schulz. The video did not show Schulz’s face, the Associated Press reported, and it was impossible to identify him conclusively. The man was blindfolded, kneeling, with his hands tied behind his back and facing away from the camera when he was purportedly shot in the back of the head. As the execution was aired on the website, a separate piece of film on a split screen showed the footage of Schulz...

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi Islamist group has said it tried to assassinate Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi this week and that four men died in the attack, Al Jazeera television said on Saturday. The channel said it received a videotape from a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq (news - web sites) in which one of the four men, who later died of his wounds, talks to camera. A group with the same name has said in an internet statement that it was holding two French journalists kidnapped on Aug. 20. Chalabi, now a vocal critic of U.S....

CAIRO, Egypt -- An Iraqi insurgent group said Thursday in an Internet posting that it killed a U.S. security consultant it had taken hostage. The claim's authenticity could not be immediately verified. The Islamic Army in Iraq said it had killed "the American security consultant for the Housing Ministry,"

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television aired footage Monday of the purported shooting of a US soldier in Iraq by a member of the so-called Islamic Army in Iraq. The brief grainy footage, which was later posted on the Internet, shows a US soldier in his uniform and helmet falling to the ground near an armoured vehicle after being shot by an alleged sniper from the militant group. A child is seen running across as the soldier is hit. The channel said it received the tape Monday but there was no independent verification of its authenticity. "On this morning of Ramadan 21, October...

FALLUJAH -- A Syrian found handcuffed in Fallujah and rescued by U.S. Marines was kidnapped with two French journalists in August, and has told authorities he last saw the Frenchmen a month ago -- the first confirmed word on the captives since they disappeared in August. Marines sweeping through Fallujah as part of a major U.S. offensive against insurgents located Mohammed al-Joundi, the U.S. military said, but there was no sign of journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. The Marines said the Syrian, who was found late Thursday, told them he was separated from the journalists a month ago. The...

CAIRO, Egypt - Kidnappers of two French journalists in Iraq praised France's "positive steps toward the Iraqi people" Tuesday, a sign that the hostage-takers may be softening their position. In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press in Cairo and also posted on a discussion board of the Iraq Islamic Army, the group said it hoped "this is a beginning for a new era of understanding our issues and respect of our constants." However, the statement did not refer to the French captives, journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot. The group, which claimed the kidnapping of the Frenchman in previous...