IRAQ: An Iraq-based group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group in a move it said aimed to increase the "ire of infidels and the fear of the enemies of Islam".
The announcement came as US jets bombed Falluja and troops fought rebels accused of shielding foreign fighters led by Zarqawi. The battles subsided at dusk after US forces pulled back from forward positions, witnesses said. Four civilians, including a child, were killed in the violence, hospital officials said. A child and a woman were among 12 wounded.
Washington has long accused Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad Group of links to al-Qaeda. But a statement posted on the Internet yesterday was the group's first public admission of ties to the network behind the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Zarqawi's group has claimed a series of killings, hostage beheadings and suicide bombings in Iraq. "With the advent of the month of Ramadan and the need for Muslims to unify ranks in the face of the enemy . . . We announce that the Tawhid and Jihad Group, its prince and soldiers, have pledged allegiance to the sheikh of the mujahideen (holy fighters) Osama bin Laden," said the statement.
"Sheikh Abu Musab was in contact with the brothers in al-Qaeda for eight months, exchanging points of view, then contact was interrupted only to be restored again and the brothers in al-Qaeda understood Tawhid and Jihad Group's strategy in [ Iraq]," said the statement, which was posted on several websites often used by militants.
After the US pull-back, witnesses said they heard loud blasts from the direction of a US marine camp east of Falluja. The US military said the explosions were controlled detonations.
In Baghdad, a mortar round hit an arms collection depot in Sadr City, killing two Iraqi National Guards and a civilian, shortly before interim Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi was due there.
Hospital staff said nine civilians were also wounded by the mortar round that hit the Sina'a Club football stadium or in shooting that erupted in the confusion afterwards.
Mr Allawi hastily rearranged his schedule after receiving word of the attack on the stadium used to store arms collected from Shia Muslim militiamen and other Iraqis in return for money.
After a two-hour delay he met supporters of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and tribal leaders in the stadium.
"I've just met with Sadr's people. I'm thrilled and pleased.Things are moving in the right direction and arms are being surrendered to the Iraqi government," he told reporters.
But a US officer said Sadr's militiamen had handed in few serviceable weapons and National Security Adviser Kassim Daoud said the week-long disarmament scheme had been extended for another two days.
Gunmen killed nine Iraqi policemen returning home from a training course in Jordan late on Saturday. "No one survived and the attackers escaped," said a police spokesman in the southern city of Kerbala, describing the ambush south of Baghdad.
Also on Saturday five churches in Baghdad were firebombed, in what appears to have been the latest attempt to sow sectarian unrest between Iraq's different religious communities. Nobody was hurt.
The interim government hopes to impose its control on Sadr City by peaceful means, but said last week that Falluja could expect military action unless it handed over Zarqawi's group. "I call on the Iraqi people throughout Iraq ... to surrender their weapons and to respect the rule of law and be part of the political process," Mr Allawi said in English. "We have extended an olive branch to the people of Falluja. We hope [ they] will be able to work with the government to bring the terrorists to justice," he said, referring to Zarqawi's men.