Iraq Islamist group says tried to kill Chalabi
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-04 16:18

An Iraqi Islamist group has said it tried to assassinate Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi this week and that four men died in the attack, Al Jazeera television said on Saturday.

The channel said it received a videotape from a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq in which one of the four men, who later died of his wounds, talks to camera.

A group with the same name has said in an internet statement that it was holding two French journalists kidnapped on Aug. 20.

Chalabi, now a vocal critic of U.S. policy in Iraq after years as a Pentagon favorite, was on the road to Baghdad when his convoy was ambushed on Wednesday. He was returning from a visit to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most respected Shi'ite Muslim leader, when the vehicles came under attack. Chalabi escaped unharmed but two of his guards were killed, two wounded and two went missing.

"The hostage said in the tape that three of his companions died in the attacks and he talked about Chalabi's relationship with the U.S. Congress and Iran," Al Jazeera said.

"The so-called Islamic Group said that the hostage who appeared in the tape later died from wounds," it said." The man, who was not named, appeared to be Iraqi.

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