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Clerics in Fallujah slam mutilations

A US Humvee vehicle yesterday burns on a highway near the restive Iraqi town of Falluja, after it had been hit by a roadside bomb, abandoned and set on fire. PHOTO: REUTERS

Islamic clerics in Fallujah said they would use the leading weekly prayers yesterday to condemn the mutilation of four slain US contractors in this conservative Muslim city, while US officials promised punishment "at the time and place of our choosing" for those responsible for the killings.

The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council issued a statement condemning "the cold-blooded slaughter and mutilation of civilians" and vowed that "those murderers who carried out these terrorist acts will not hinder or disrupt the march of our people toward the dawn of freedom and democracy."

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt pledged to hunt down those who carried out Wednesday's killings -- but he added that clashes could be avoided if Fallujah city officials arrest those responsible for the murders.

"Is there going to be a fight? ... You should ask the insurgents. ... You should ask the governors and the mayor inside Fallujah. If they were to deliver these people to the criminal justice system, we will come back in and start the rebuilding of Fallujah. That is their choice," he said.

A Fallujah city council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the council met late Thursday and issued a statement "condemning the mutilation of the bodies in the streets because it contradicts the teachings of Islam and it is unacceptable in the religious point of view." He did not say whether a decision was made to take action against those responsible for the killings.

Police yesterday were manning regular roadside checkpoints and there was no sign of US troops in or around the city.

Senior Fallujah cleric Sheik Khalid Ahmed said Muslim preachers in mosques across the city would tell their followers that the mutilation of the bodies was wrong. He did not say whether they would condemn the killings.

"Prophet Muhammad prohibited even the mutilation of a dead mad dog and he considered such a thing as religiously forbidden. What happened in Fallujah is a distortion of Islamic principles and it is forbidden in Islam. We condemn such acts and all Fallujah clerics will do so during the Friday prayers," Ahmed said.
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