Group Vows to Hit Muslims Who Send Troops to Iraq

An Islamist militant group threatened Thursday to attack Muslim countries that send troops to Iraq as proposed by Saudi Arabia and welcomed by the United States.

"We will not remain silent if troops are sent to Iraq by any Arab or Muslim country, especially by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and others," said the statement by the group calling itself the Islamic Tawhid Group, posted on an Islamist Web site.

"We will strike with an iron fist all the traitors of Arab governments who cooperate with the Zionists," it added.

The identity of the group was not clear but it had a similar name to a Qaeda-linked group — the Islamic Tawhid Group, the al Qaeda Organization Europe — which had threatened Italy and Australia Saturday with attacks if they did not withdraw their troops from Iraq.

The group behind Thursday’s message said it was addressed to the Saudi government and Pakistan "who are seeking to send Muslim forces to Iraq to please their masters, the Jews and Christians."

Addressing Muslim soldiers, it said: "If you are sent to Iraq do not respond and don’t throw yourselves to death because our swords will be in the face of whoever cooperates with the Jews and Christians."

It also blasted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for "bowing down to America" by revealing his nuclear program.

Earlier Thursday Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, called on Muslim nations to join a proposed force of Islamic troops in Iraq.

Allawi met Secretary of State Colin Powell in Saudi Arabia and embraced a Saudi proposal for Arab and Muslim nations other than Iraq’s immediate neighbors to provide troops to help secure Iraq in the face of a fierce insurgency.

Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has suspected links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network and is now operating in Iraq, has issued statements in the past threatening to attack troops and nationals of Muslim countries helping the coalition. DUBAI (Reuters)

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