Zarqawi group vows revenge
2005-02-02 17:58
Dubai - The group of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, threatened on Wednesday to avenge the killing of four inmates at a US military-run prison in southern Iraq, in a statement posted on the Internet.
"What is the crime of these unarmed prisoners? O tyrants, we will punish you," said a statement attributed to the al-Qaeda Group in the Land of Two Rivers which is headed by Zarqawi.
"We will respond to your crimes in a dissuasive manner.
We tell our brothers in the prisons of the Crusaders and the oppressors: Be patient, victory is close," said the statement, the authenticity of which could not be confirmed.
On Tuesday, US military authorities said American troops opened fire to quell a riot at the prison in southern Iraq, killing four Iraqi inmates and wounding six others.
The disturbances erupted on Monday during a routine search of part of the inmate area at Camp Bucca prison near the Kuwaiti border, they said.
The US military says it holds an estimated 7 000 security internees, with 4 700 of those held at Camp Bucca, near the port of Umm Qasr, and 2 300 at the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad.
- AFP