Iraq rebels 'will kill anyone linked to constitution'

Jon Swain, Baghdad and Hala Jaber

IRAQ’s insurgents have threatened to kill all the secular politicians involved in writing the country’s new constitution in an apparent attempt to push the the rival Sunni and Shi’ite communities towards civil war.
As talks continued this weekend to draw up a new constitution before tomorrow’s deadline, a statement from “Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers”, one of Iraq’s most powerful insurgent groups, denounced the document as “un-Islamic” and warned any mullahs and clerics supporting it that “you are responsible before God for every word you offer”.

For the wrangling politicians — given an extra week to agree the document after failing to meet last Monday’s deadline — the threat was more specific. “We will harshly retaliate against anyone who participates and encourages the writing of the constitution and therefore to rule against God’s way,” the group said.

The chilling statement was signed by Abu Maysara Al-Iraqi, a militant usually described as the head of Al-Qaeda’s “media department” in Iraq.

On another website, a splinter group calling itself the “Islamic Tribunal of the Organisation of Al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers” claimed that it had “decided to apply the order of Allah: kill whoever assumes the right to be a partner of God and draws up a null and void constitution”. The group also threatened to strike against polling stations during a referendum on the constitution scheduled for October.

The insurgents claim that the only binding law for Iraq should be the Koran and are opposed to the country being known as anything other than an Islamic republic — a title ruled out by the American and British diplomatic delegations who are advising the local politicians.

The constitution has also been rejected by secular insurgent groups. One, the Army of the Victorious Sect, made up of former military officers who served under Saddam Hussein, the ousted dictator, dismissed it as a White House plot and vowed to continue fighting until American and British troops withdraw from Iraq. The group indicated that it, too, has drawn up a “hit list” of Shi’ite politicians to be eliminated. >>>continued

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