- British troops in Iraq faced new dangers yesterday as
an aide to the leader of the radical Mahdi army called on followers to
capture women soldiers as slaves and Osama bin Laden placed a bounty on
soldiers' heads.
-
- Sheikh Abdul-Satter al-Bahadli, delivering a sermon at
a Basra mosque with an assault rifle by his side, called on supporters
to launch a jihad against British troops in the southern city.
-
- Waving documents and photographs which he claimed were
of three Iraqi women being raped at British-run prisons, he said $350 (£195)
would be given to anyone who captured a British soldier and $150 for killing
one.
-
- He told the 3,000 worshippers that anyone who captured
a woman soldier would be allowed to keep her as a slave. Al-Bahadli is
a close adviser to Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi army which is at
the centre of fighting in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.
-
- The sermon is the first time that a leading anti-coalition
Shia leader has offered a financial reward for the killing or capture of
troops.
-
- The specific targeting of women is being interpreted
as a reaction to the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison which show
female soldiers humiliating Iraqi detainees.
-
- A British spokesman said the threat was "very worrying"
and was being closely monitored.
-
- A message that the CIA believes came from Osama bin Laden,
the leader of the al-Qa'eda terrorist network, put a price in gold for
the killing of any British and American troops as well as leading officials.
-
- The statement posted on an Islamic extremist website
promised 10,000 grams of gold - around £67,000 - to anyone who killed
Paul Bremer, the American chief administrator in Iraq, his deputy, or Gen
John Abizaid, the commander of American forces.
-
- A similar price was placed on Kofi Annan, the United
Nations secretary-general, and Lakhdar Brahimi, his special envoy in Iraq.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/08/wirq10
8.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/08/ixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=32229
|
