WAR: Militants Behead 3 Militiamen in Iraq

AA video posted on a website yesterday showed the beheading of 3 Iraqi Kurds yesterday. The group claiming responsibility, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, has previously targeted Kurds. It was a politically motivated killing in retaliation for the cooperation of Kurdish political parties with the United States. Each victim was shown in the video to present their identity card, then their throat was slip. After one of the insurgents preceded to cut off the head and place it on the backs of the men. .The beheaded bodies the three men were found on a road outside the city of Mosul. Currently there are 13 westerners being held under a threat of death including 2 Americans, one Briton, and ten Turkish citizens.



The Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, has indicated that they are working to secure the release of the hostages. But the Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebarihas, has ruled out meeting the kidnappers demands. To do so he said would set a bad president. Despite these efforts, 3 more Lebanese hostages were reportedly seized on Sunday between Baghdad and Falluja. This brings the total number of kidnaped people to around 120. The insurgents are targeting foreign companies in a bid to drive them out and delay or even end the efforts at reconstruction. The insurgents have stepped up their attacks in what seems to be an attempt to disrupt the future Iraqi elections.

[edit on 19-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 24-9-2004 by Banshee]

Originally posted by FredT
The bodies of the three Kurds, members of the peshmerga militia of the Kurdistan Democratic Party,

Oh man, now things will get really bad, unless the US and interim gov can convince the Kurds that its better to act like everything is normal.

Kurds are an iranian people, they speak a different language and have a different culture than the southern iraqis, who are a mix of natives and arabs. The Turks have been fighting with Kurd rebels/militias for a long time in Turkey, and the Kurdish Peoples in general are thought to want to make a bid for a Greater Kurdistan, made up of parts of Turkey and Iraq and I would guess possibly sections of Syria and Armenia?

The Peshmerga are the Kurdish paramilitary, the revolutionaries/patriots whatever. If the arab iraqis continue to make things difficult for the kurds, well, forget about worry about sunni and shiite muslims infighting, this is the sort of thing world wars start over. Whats the US or UN supposed to do if fighting between Kurd armies and Iraqi armies breaks out, engulfs Turkey and involves iran and perhaps a pan-arab military alliance? And Israel, its not going to be able to stand by while arab armies mass in jordan and syria. Yeesh.