(AP/Washington Post) - Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Iran's vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, blamed al-Qaeda for Tuesday's attacks on Shiite Muslims in Iraq and Pakistan. "The reactionary al-Qaeda terror group reached a conclusion...that they have two enemies: the United States as the political enemy and Shiites as the ideological enemy," Abtahi said. Al-Qaeda draws its members from some of the most conservative streams of Sunni thought - segments of Muslim society that consider Shiites heretics. A total of 185 people were killed in Tuesday's bombings in Baghdad and Karbala, Iraq; and Quetta, Pakistan, including at least 22 Iranian pilgrims in Karbala.
2004-03-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive