Ihab Al-Sherif

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Ihab Al-Sherif (January 1954 - July 2005) was the Egyptian envoy to Iraq. He was previously the Chargé d'affaires to Israel.

[edit] Kidnapping and death

He was abducted on July 3, 2005 when he stepped out of his car in Baghdad to buy a newspaper. It is possible he was targeted because he, the senior diplomat for Egypt, would have been the first full-ranking Arab ambassador to the U.N.-backed Iraqi government.

The al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, which was run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, once Iraq's most wanted militant, posted a message on a website July 6, 2005 saying that the group had decided to kill Mr. el-Sherif. A website used by the Al Qaeda offshoot in Iraq announced the killing, showing a video of a blindfolded man who appeared to be Sherif giving his name and address and acknowledging that he once worked as a diplomat in Israel.

The website, which earlier had displayed Sherif's identification cards, did not show the killing. The message said,

"The Islamic court of the al-Qaeda Organization in the Land of Two Rivers has decided to refer the ambassador of the state of Egypt, an ally of the Jews and the Christians, to the mujahedeens so that they can execute him".

On July 7, 2005, Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in an Internet posting to have killed him, stating, "the verdict of God against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt, has been carried out". His death was subsequently confirmed by the Egyptian government.

Sherif is the highest-level hostage executed since Coalition -led forces ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003. The slaying was part of an apparent campaign to deter other nations from expanding diplomatic ties with Iraq's new government. President Hosni Mubarak stated that the murder would not deter Egypt from supporting Iraq.