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Iraq's al-Qaida group said in an Internet statement on Tuesday that it would execute two Algerian diplomats kidnapped in Baghdad.
"The Islamic court of the Al-Qaida Organization in the Land of Two Rivers has decided to carry out God's verdict against the two diplomats of the apostate Algerian government, charge d'affaires Ali Bila'aroussi and diplomatic attache Azzedine bin Fadi, and ordered to kill them," said the statement posted on an Islamic web site.
It also threatened other diplomats in Baghdad with the same fate, saying "this will be the fate of the other diplomats and representatives of the rest of the infidel governments."
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Gunmen abducted the top Algerian envoy Ali Bila'aroussi and the embassy diplomatic attache Azzedine bin Fadi, along with their driver in Baghdad's western al-Mansur district on July 21.
The al-Qaida Organization in the Land of Two Rivers claimed responsibility for the abduction two days later.
Algeria has reportedly withdrawn all other embassy staffs from Baghdad since the abduction of the two diplomats.
Earlier this month, Iraq's al-Qaida wing claimed that it had killed Egypt's top envoy Ihab al-Sharif five days after he was kidnapped in Baghdad, but it provided no evidence of the killing.
A string of abductions and attacks against foreign diplomats in Baghdad this month were seen as insurgents' attempts to undermine the new Iraqi government's efforts to improve ties with other Arab countries.
(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2005)
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