DUBAI - The group of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, threatened in a message posted Wednesday on the Internet to kill Egypt's abducted top envoy to Iraq whom it says it is holding.
"The Islamic court of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers has decided to refer the ambassador of the state of Egypt, an ally of the Jews and the Christians, to the mujahedeens so that they can execute him," it said.
Ambassador-designate Ihab al-Sharif, 51, was kidnapped late Saturday while walking alone on a Baghdad street, in the first abduction of a head of mission since the spate of foreign hostage-takings began.
"This ambassador did not come with a message to the struggling Muslim community, but in order to help consolidate the Crusader state," said Zarqawi's group in the statement which could not be authenticated.
"These embassies (in Iraq) are control towers to catch the mujahedeen ... and there are none meaner and more harmful than the Egyptian intelligence officers in the Abu Ghraib and Bucca jails and the Baghdad International Airport detention cells."
Zarqawi's group earlier Wednesday posted on an Islamist website photos of the diplomat's identification cards.
The coloured posting showed Sharif's personal identification card, driving licence, medical insurance card as well as an Egyptian foreign ministry card and another from the Iraqi foreign ministry dated June 6.
Except for his medical insurance card, all four of Sharif's IDs showed his picture.
The group had claimed his abduction in a statement also posted on an Islamist website, but which carried no demands.
Iraqi insurgents are targeting diplomats in Baghdad to isolate the government and dissuade Arab countries from raising their level of diplomatic representation, according to Iraqi officials and foreign envoys.
Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US price on his head, has claimed responsibility for a large number of the attacks, kidnappings and murders in Iraq since the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein two years ago.
