Iraq hostages deadline nears as senior Sunni cleric killed

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040920/wl_mideast_afp/iraq&cid=1514&ncid=1480

<snip>
As London and Washington faced-down the chilling ultimatum a spokesman for the Committee of the Muslim Scholars told AFP on Monday that Sheikh Hazem al-Zaidi was abducted late Sunday along with two companions outside his al-Sajad mosque, an isolated Sunni place of worship in Sadr City.


Zaidi was charged with coordination among Sunni clerics and other religious movements in Iraq, he said.


No other details were immediately available on the killing which added to the violence which has seen more than 400 Iraqis killed this month alone with the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and its foreign military backers appearing powerless to control it four months before scheduled elections.


In other developments an Iraqi militant group paraded 18 captive national guardsmen in video footage aired by Al-Jazeera television Sunday with a threat to execute them in 48 hours if a Shiite radical militia commander is not released.

[Moderator]

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