IRAQ:The head of an al-Qaeda-led group in Iraq condemned moderate Sunni groups for "betrayal" in an audio tape aired on al-Jazeera yesterday, a day after the killing of a leading Sunni tribal leader.
"The jihad in Iraq is under fierce attack today . . . by the hands of betrayal," said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq. He attacked groups including the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading moderate Sunni group.
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a Sunni Arab tribal leader instrumental in driving al-Qaeda out of Iraq's Anbar province, was killed by a bomb on Thursday.
Meanwhile, four US soldiers were killed by an explosion near their vehicle in Iraq's volatile Diyala province, north of Baghdad, the US military said.
Their deaths take to 3,780 the number of US service personnel killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
No other details about the incident were immediately available.
A total of 38 US soldiers have been killed so far in September, compared with 84 last month.
Thousands of US and Iraqi troops have been cracking down on al-Qaeda and other Sunni Arab militants in Diyala province in recent weeks as part of nationwide offensives against the Sunni Islamist group, insurgents and Shia militias.
Georgia will cut its troops in Iraq to less than a quarter of the current contingent by next June, the Georgian defence minister said yesterday. This will see the number of Georgian servicemen being reduced from 2,000 to some 300.