Iraq: Al-Qaeda in Iraq swore yesterday to carry out attacks to "shake the enemy" after the killing of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, heightening fears that his death will bring no respite from carnage.
The group said in an internet statement that its leading body met after Zarqawi's death to discuss strategy and renew a pledge to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"We plan large-scale operations that will shake the enemy and rob them of sleep, in co-ordination with the other factions of the Mujahideen Council," the statement said.
Iraqi leaders and their closest ally US president George W Bush welcomed Zarqawi's death in a US air strike on Wednesday as a major victory in the battle against "terrorism".
But no one expects violence to ease: a car bomb killed six people and wounded 42 in Baghdad hours after the statement was published, police said.
Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaeda militants are waging a campaign of bombings and shootings to topple the Shia-led government backed by Washington.
Gen George Casey, commander of US troops in Iraq, predicted in a CBS interview yesterday a gradual reduction of the 131,000 US forces there if the new Iraqi unity government led by prime minister Nuri al-Maliki held together and the Iraqi army improved.
Insurgents killed four Iraqi soldiers in an attack on a desert Iraqi army base in rebellious Anbar province yesterday and police found the beheaded body of an Iraqi soldier in a river near Tikrit.
A bomb in northern Baghdad seriously wounded a senior police officer. A policeman driving the car was killed and another was wounded.
Mr al-Maliki hopes his national unity government of Shias, Kurds and Arab Sunnis will end the attacks and tackle the sectarian violence that has pushed the country close to civil war.
He said last week that more than 2,000 detainees would be released from US military and Iraqi prisons to try to help promote national reconciliation.
A second group of 600 prisoners was freed yesterday after nearly 600 were released last week.
- (Reuters)