Islamist militants threatened today to assassinate Iraq's interim prime minister, just hours after they said they had beheaded a South Korean hostage in the violent run-up to a US handover to Iraqi rule.
Taped voice
"As for you, Allawi - sorry, the democratically elected prime minister - we have found for you a useful poison and a sure sword," said a taped voice, said to be that of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on an Islamist website.
"We will pursue our mission to the end," said the voice, referring to plans to kill Mr Iyad Allawi.
Mr Allawi's government, selected by a UN envoy in consultation with US and Iraqi officials, will be sworn in when the US-led occupation formally ends in a week's time.
Zarqawi's group, Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad, said yesterday it had decapitated South Korean hostage Mr Kim Sun-il after Seoul refused to withdraw forces from Iraq.
Hours after finding Mr Kim's body, US forces launched an air strike on a suspected safe house of Zarqawi's group in Falluja, west of Baghdad, the second such raid in four days. Residents said the attack destroyed a garage and killed four people.
Arabic Al Jazeera television showed footage yesterday of hooded gunmen standing over a kneeling Kim, who was blindfolded and wearing an orange tunic similar to those worn by prisoners in US detention facilities such as Guantanamo Bay.
"We warned you and you ignored it," one of the men said. "Enough lies. Your army is not here for the sake of Iraqis but for the sake of cursed America."
Al Jazeera said the tape then showed a man cutting off Mr Kim's head with a knife. It did not broadcast that part.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun denounced Kim's killing and said his country would still send 3,000 more troops to Iraq to join 670 engineers and medics already there.
The 33-year-old Arabic-speaking translator, who screamed "I don't want to die" in an earlier videotape sent by his captors, was kidnapped in Falluja on June 17th.