Iraqi clerics call US-led strikes 'genocide'

An Iraqi man, resident of the northern town of Tall Afar looks at US troops closing the entrance of the battered town yesterday. US forces sealed off the northern Iraqi town following heavy clashes with insurgents. Dozens of residents, many of them women and children have fled Tall Afar to a makeshift Iraqi Red Crescent camp. The US military said operations "to establish security and eliminate terrorist activities" were continuing. PHOTO: AFP

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that US allies and Iraqi political candidates were likely to come under attack in Iraq as insurgents seek to derail elections in January.

"There's no question but betw-een now and the end of the year the terrorists are determined to try to prevent the elections from taking place and from taking place on time.

"And they will, without a doubt in my mind, increase the level of violence between now and then," he said in Washington.

Italian officials meanwhile lobbied for help in securing the release of two kidnapped aid workers after militants loyal to al-Qaeda's number-two purportedly gave Italy 24 hours to pledge to free female Muslim prisoners in Iraq.

A statement in the name of Ansar al-Zawahiri, a group loyal to Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned in a website video that US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan was only "a matter of time."

As US-led operations to rid Tall Afar of "terrorists" continued, Sheikh Abdel Ghaffur al-Samarrai told worshippers the assault on the small mainly Shia Turkmen northern town qualified as genocide.

"What have the residents of Fallujah and Tall Afar done to deserve these atrocities? The occupation forces are committing genocide," he said.

"They came to Iraq to kill, destroy and strip its resources. Where is the UN Security Council?" the leading cleric asked.

Calm returned to Tall Afar Friday after a 13-hour air and ground assault the previous day, which medics said left 45 people dead and that US commanders said killed up to 57 "terrorists."

"These savage bombardments make no distinction between unarmed civilians and those equipped with weapons," Sheikh Salah al-Jaburi said in the nearby city of Mosul, accusing the US-led coalition of committing an "enormous" crime.

With the town sealed off since Thursday, dozens of residents, many of them women and children, have fled to a makeshift Iraqi Red Crescent camp.