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A shadowy Islamic group warned Saudi Arabia Tuesday not to bend to "Crusader" requests for Arab and Muslim forces to be sent to Iraq to replace US-led forces in the troubled country. "We are addressing this message to King Fahd bin Abdel Aziz and his Saudi government: do not obey the Crusaders by sending Arab and Muslim troops to Iraq, under your supervision," said a statement by the Islamic Tawhid Group posted at the website http://www.ansarnet.ws/vb. Tawhid means unification. "If you do not respond favorably to our call, we swear by God that you will not know security as long as our brothers in Iraq and in Afghanistan do not know it," warned the previously unknown group. "If you respond favorably to our appeal, your security will be ours. We pledge not to harm your security and your interests," said the text, signed by "the brigade of martyr Sheikh (Ahmad) Yassin," the Palestinian Islamic leader assassinated by Israeli forces earlier this year. "We do not want bloodshed. We do not want discord between Muslims," although "if Muslim troops are sent to Iraq, we will not remain idle," it said. "On the contrary, our response will be in every country, Arab or Islamic, which has sent soldiers to Iraq." The statement also threatened to strike "foreign countries which have sent forces to Iraq" since the US-led invasion in April 2003 that ousted the Saddam Hussein regime. "Expect hurricanes and storms by the mujahedeens," or holy fighters. On Sunday, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said that Arab and Muslim states did not at present want to send troops to Iraq. He was speaking following talks with Saudi leaders who have proposed sending an Arab or Muslim force to replace the US-led troops in Iraq, at Baghdad's request and under the auspices of the United Nations. Riyadh stressed on Sunday that any Muslim troops dispatched to Iraq would be sent to replace US-led multinational forces and not to supplement them -- as US officials had said earlier. Earlier Tuesday, Jordanian King Abdullah II told Al-Arabiya satellite channel that Amman would consider sending troops to troubled Iraq if Baghdad made a request for an Arab force to replace the US-led multinational force. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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