Extremists warn against Muslim troops

An Iraqi extremist group yesterday vowed to “strike with an iron fist” against a proposed force of peacekeepers from leading Muslim nations, as diplomatic momentum for the Saudi Arabian proposal gathered new force.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, after a meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in the Saudi city of Jidda, appealed to Islamic countries to contribute to the force, which could ease or even eliminate in time the need for the massive U.S.-led security presence in Iraq.

“These are forces of evil who are acting against us,” Mr. Allawi said. “I call upon the leaders of the Islamic countries and the Arab countries to close ranks.”

Iraq has ruled out troops from any of its neighbors, and the countries seen most likely to contribute include Pakistan, Malaysia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt and Morocco.

Iraqi terrorist groups, which have fought a vicious guerrilla war against the U.S.-led coalition and forces of the new Iraqi government, warned that they would not spare troops sent by other Muslim countries.

“Our swords will be drawn in the face of anyone who cooperates with the Jews and the Christians,” said a message posted on the Internet site of the Group of Islamic Monotheism, one of several extremist groups that denounced the idea.

“We will strike with an iron fist all the traitors from the Arab governments who cooperate with the Zionists secretly or openly.”

A joint Muslim military force would be a political coup for the Bush administration, giving Islamic countries a stake in the future of Iraq and countering recent defections of countries participating in the postwar mission.

Just yesterday, Ukraine became the latest country to hint that it is considering setting an early date to pull its forces out of Iraq. Ukraine’s 1,650 soldiers, operating under Polish command in southern Iraq, are the fourth-largest contingent of troops in the coalition.

U.S. officials took a low-key approach to the Saudi idea yesterday, stressing that many basic details had to be worked out. Privately, they said a high American profile in the effort would make it more difficult to achieve.

“This is a Saudi proposal, it’s a Saudi initiative,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Mr. Powell, speaking to reporters alongside Mr. Allawi, said the Muslim force could be used to protect U.N. personnel and operations in Iraq or to guard facilities and infrastructure.

But several Muslim states have said that they would consider joining the force only if it were intended to completely replace the U.S.-dominated coalition and if it operated under the direct command of the United Nations — conditions the Pentagon is unlikely to accept.

Still, the Saudi initiative already has seen a considerable amount of diplomatic spadework.

Pakistani Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain discussed the idea with Saudi leaders during a visit to the kingdom last weekend. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was in Tunisia yesterday meeting with his counterparts from Algeria, Bahrain and Tunisia, as well as a top Arab League official, about the idea.

Anthony Cordesman, a senior security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it was likely that the Muslim troop idea had been carefully prepared.

“Senior Saudi officials are rarely in the business of surprising an American secretary of state,” he noted.

Mr. Cordesman said even a small Islamic multinational force could be politically significant. The nations being asked to contribute are largely Sunni Muslim, which could reassure Iraq’s minority Sunnis.

But the force also poses major political problems for many of the prospective contributing countries, where the war in Iraq was overwhelmingly opposed.

Mohammed Mahdi Akef, supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s large Islamic organization, said his group “totally rejected and opposed any Arab or Islamic country sending troops to support the occupation in Iraq.”

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.