TAL AFAR, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister toured the ancient northern city of Tal Afar on Monday, ignoring an alleged al-Qaida threat to strike with chemical weapons, to congratulate Iraqi forces for rousting militants from their stronghold near Syria, Iraqi television reported.
Al-Iraqiya television said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was in the Tal Afar area despite an insurgent threat to unleash chemical and biological weapons against the force of 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and commandos, backed by 3,500 troops from the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry regiment, who stormed into the city Saturday.
The offensive “was a great shock to al-Qaida. They were thrown off balance and issued this threat. We will be on the lookout,” Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said at a news conference.
Militant positions were found mainly deserted Sunday, and the invading force discovered a network of tunnels below the city through which the insurgents were believed to have fled to the surrounding countryside.
The offensive, however, exacted a heavy toll on the insurgents, leaving almost 200 suspected militants dead and more than 315 captured, Iraqi military officials said. No American soldiers were reported killed in the fighting.
In Baghdad, a huge car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in the upscale Mansour neighborhood Monday night, witnesses said. Hospital officials reported at least two people were killed and 17 were wounded.
In a new Web posting Monday, the Islamic Army in Iraq, which previously claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings of foreigners, called on its “holy fighters to strike the infidels with an iron fist.” It offered $100,000 for killing al-Jaafari, $50,000 for Jabr and $30,000 for Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi.
As Baghdad kept a border crossing into Syria closed, al-Dulaimi issued a warning: “The Syrians have to stop sending destruction to Iraq. We know the terrorists have no other gateway into Iraq but Syria.”
A Syrian Foreign Ministry official reacted angrily Monday, rejecting the Iraqi claim as “absolutely untrue.”
Speaking to reporters at the U.S. State Department, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the Bush administration’s top diplomat in Iraq refused to rule out either a military strike on Syria or an attempt to further punish Syria through the United Nations Security Council.
“All options are on the table,” Khalilzad said.
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