Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi Dismisses Bounty al-Zarqawi put on Allawi's head. The Associated Press reports:
Iraq's prime minister on Tuesday mocked a $280,000 bounty allegedly put on his head by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, calling the terror suspect "mentally ill" and brushing aside the threat by saying he'd heard tough talk before under Saddam Hussein.
A statement posted Sunday on an Islamic Web site, signed by the Khalid bin Al Walid Brigade, which is believed to be close to al-Zarqawi, called Prime Minister Iyad Allawi an "American stooge" who will be assassinated and offered the reward.
"Zarqawi's threats do not scare me. I was always subject to Saddam's regime threats as well as the other Iraqi leaders," Allawi said after meeting with the Arab ambassadors in Amman. "We are all ready to sacrifice our life for Iraq, so neither his position nor his threat scares us at all."
"Those people are mentally ill and do not belong to this nation," Allawi said of al-Zarqawi and his cohorts, laughing slightly. "Those people are rejected by all Iraqis, and that is why they hide in the dark and try to spread their poison in our society."
I'm starting to like that Allawi guy -- quite the cowboy, neh? Bring 'em on!
Posted by: pedro | Wednesday, July 21, 2004 at 09:28 AM