{"id":938,"date":"2005-07-07T23:21:54","date_gmt":"2005-07-08T04:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=938"},"modified":"2005-07-07T23:22:24","modified_gmt":"2005-07-08T04:22:24","slug":"kidnapped-egyptian-diplomat-killed-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"Kidnapped Egyptian Diplomat Killed in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

The terrorists in Iraq continued their violent hatred of defenseless fellow Moslems, this time killing the top Egyptian diplomat<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

Gunmen have killed the head of Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Baghdad, Cairo said on Thursday. The Al Qaeda group said it executed him because he represented a “tyrannical” government allied to Jews and Christians.<\/p>\n

The envoy, ambassador Ihab al-Sherif, was abducted near his home in Baghdad last Saturday about one month after taking up his post as one of the highest ranking Arab diplomats in Iraq.<\/p>\n

A former diplomat in Tel Aviv, Sherif appears to have fallen foul of a conflict between insurgents and the U.S.-backed rulers in Baghdad over Arab recognition of the government.<\/p>\n

The Iraqi government had said Egypt planned to upgrade its representation in Baghdad to full ambassador level. Egypt said that although Sherif has the civil service rank of ambassador, his title remained head of the diplomatic mission in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The Al Qaeda group in Iraq announced his death on Thursday in an Internet statement posted on an Islamist Web site.<\/p>\n

“We al Qaeda in Iraq announce that the judgment of God has been implemented against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt. Oh enemy of God, Ihab el-Sherif, this is your punishment in this life,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

The group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, posted a video showing the hostage speaking but not the actual killing.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian presidency confirmed that Sherif was dead, saying in a statement that the envoy had “lost his life at the hands of terrorism which trades in Islam.”<\/p>\n

“The Egyptian Foreign Ministry … has received with deep pain and sadness the news of the martyrdom of Ambassador Dr. Ihab al-Sherif,” added a Foreign Ministry statement.<\/p>\n

An Egyptian diplomatic source said Egypt had confirmation of the killing “through multiple contacts” but had not received decisive evidence from the Iraqi government and did not know where Sherif’s body might be.<\/p>\n

The killing surprised the Egyptian government, which earlier on Thursday was saying that it remained in contact with all Iraqi groups and hoped to secure his release.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the surprise, Egypt immediately took bold measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Egypt will close its mission in Baghdad and withdraw its staff after al-Qaida’s wing in Iraq said it had killed an abducted top Egyptian envoy, an Iraqi official said Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Run away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The terrorists in Iraq continued their violent hatred of defenseless fellow Moslems, this time killing the top Egyptian diplomat in the country. Gunmen have killed the head of Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Baghdad, Cairo said on Thursday. The Al Qaeda group said it executed him because he represented a “tyrannical” government allied to Jews and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}