BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sunni Arabs protested the slaying of a respected sheik Friday, and a little-known Sunni group said a deadly car bombing was retaliation for the shooting death. Prosecutors said a key witness in Saddam Hussein’s trial has died of cancer, but his testimony has been recorded and can still be used.
Meanwhile, a videotape posted on the Internet – allegedly by al-Qaida in Iraq – purportedly showed how the terror group planned and carried out the Oct. 24 triple suicide attack against the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, in which 17 people were killed.
A narrator said the Palestine headquarters of the Associated Press, Fox News and others was occupied “by foreign journalists and security companies,” but indicated the Sheraton was the main target because it housed “assassination teams, intelligence groups” and American soldiers.
The videotape’s authenticity could not be verified.
In Baghdad, more than 200 members of the Batta tribe gathered at a mosque carrying banners and chanting slogans to demand the resignation of the defense minister in the slaying Wednesday of Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem.
One of the sheik’s brothers said gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into the family home, killing al-Hemaiyem, three of his sons and his son-in-law. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry denied government forces were involved.
A statement from the little-known Partisans of the Sunni claimed it carried out a car bombing Thursday in the mostly Shiite city of Hillah in retaliation for the slaying of al-Hemaiyem and other attacks against Sunni Arabs. Eleven people were killed and 17 were wounded.
“We have warned the (Shiites) to stop assassinations and detentions and torture,” the statement posted Friday on an Islamist Web site said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
