Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader threatens polls violence

The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened in an audio recording late on Friday to stop Iraqi parliamentary elections by "military means," the SITE monitoring service said.

SITE, which monitors Islamist websites, said Baghdadi condemned the March 7 elections as a political crime plotted by Shiites.

"(We) have decided to prevent the elections by all legitimate means possible, primarily by military means," the service quoted him as saying.

The speech, which runs 34 minutes and 22 seconds and was produced by the group's media arm, al-Furqan, was posted on jihadist websites on Friday, SITE said.

The election is seen by Washington as a crucial precursor to a complete U.S. military withdrawal by the end of 2011.

There are currently 107,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, but the number is scheduled to fall to 50,000 by August when all American combat soldiers are due to pull out.

Around 19 million people have the right to vote, including 1.4 million Iraqi citizens now living abroad in 16 countries, according to election organizers.
Al Arabiya

Too democratic for some.