AU condems diplomats' killing
2005-07-29 11:47
Addis Ababa - The African Union on Friday expressed indignation at this week's killing of two Algerian diplomats in Iraq by an al-Qaeda-linked armed group.
AU commission chairperson Alpha Omar Konare "expresses, with indignation, his total condemnation of the cold-blood killing of the two Algerian diplomats perpetrated in Iraq", said an AU statement.
Konare expressed "his solidarity with the government and the people of Algeria and conveys his condolences to the bereaved families".
He deplored "the intensification of terrorist acts whose most certain consequence is to weaken the religion of peace, tolerance and love that Islam truly represents", the statement said.
Loyalists of al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi announced on Wednesday they had killed Ali Belaroussi, 62, and aide Azzedine Belkadi, 47, who they had seized in Baghdad six days earlier.