Al-Qaeda gang threatens to execute Algerian diplomats

By The Newsroom
Published 27th Jul 2005, 01:00 BST
AL-QAEDA in Iraq yesterday threatened to execute two Algerian diplomats kidnapped in Baghdad last week and posted a video of the men on the internet.

The video showed two blindfolded men, one of whom identified himself as Ali Belaroussi, the chief of the Algerian mission. The other said he was Azzedine Belkadi.

A statement from al-Qaeda in Iraq accompanying the video said their "confessions" would be posted soon. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has said it would kill the two diplomats, adding that this would be "the fate of the ambassadors and the envoys of all infidel governments".

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Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire yesterday on two buses carrying workers from a government-owned company, killing 12 and wounding nine, police and a company official said.

The attack took place in the Abu Ghraib area in the west of Baghdad shortly after the employees left their jobs at a company owned by the ministry of industry and minerals.