Al-Qaida targets Sunnis working with Shiites

BAGHDAD -- Al-Qaida in Iraq branded the country's Sunni vice president a "criminal" for participating in the U.S.-backed government, and a suicide bomber Saturday struck army recruits west of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people in another warning to Sunnis not to cooperate with the Shiite leadership.

The suicide attack in the mostly Sunni town of Abu Ghraib was the deadliest in a series of attacks that left at least 74 people dead nationwide.

The verbal attack on Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi was purportedly delivered by al-Qaida leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, in an audiotape posted on an extremist Web site only days after Iraqi authorities claimed he had been killed.

During the 21-minute speech, the al-Qaida leader criticized al-Hashemi as "this criminal" who "relentlessly calls" for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq. Al-Hashemi has resisted calls by fellow Sunni leaders to quit the Shiite-dominated government.

The speaker also denied any clashes between al-Qaida and other "jihadist groups or our blessed tribes," saying reports to the contrary by U.S. and Iraqi authorities were only "lies and a desperate attempt to drive a wedge within the ranks of the jihadists."

Iraqi officials announced this week that al-Masri had been killed in an internal fight among al-Qaida members; they could not produce a body and U.S. officials said they could not confirm the report.

The audiotape -- the first word from al-Masri since his reported death -- was posted on a militant Web site and appeared to be a clear warning to Sunnis against cooperating with the Shiite-dominated government.

Hours later, a video was released showing Osama bin Laden's deputy mocking the nearly 3-month-old Baghdad security plan, recounting the Apr. 12 suicide bombing at the Iraqi parliament cafeteria in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, when a bomber slipped through security and blew himself up amid lunching lawmakers, killing one Sunni legislator.

The attack cast heavy doubt about progress in the latest U.S.-Iraqi bid to clamp off violence in the capital. Iraq's al-Qaida front group claimed responsibility for the bombing.

"And lest Bush worry, I congratulate him on the success of his security plan, and I invite him on the occasion for a glass of juice, but in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament in the middle of the Green Zone," Ayman al-Zawahri said, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors militant statements.

Al-Zawahri also blamed Iraq's Shiite-Sunni violence on "individuals and groups in Iraq who do not want the coalition forces to leave" but claimed al-Qaida fighters in Iraq were "nearing closer to victory over their enemy, despite this sectarian fighting" that has convulsed the country.