Ihab Al-Sherif

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Ihab Al-Sherif (January 1954 - July 2005) served as Egypt's ambassador to Iraq until kidnappers murdered him in July 2005. He previously served as Egypt's 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 United Nations-backed Iraqi government.^{[citation needed]}

The Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, once Iraq's most wanted militant, posted a message on the internet on 6 July 2005 saying that the group had killed Al-Sherif, showing a video of Sherif blindfolded, 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 Qaeda 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 was the highest-level hostage executed since Coalition -led forces ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003. The slaying was part of a campaign to deter other nations from expanding diplomatic ties with Iraq's new government. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stated that the murder would not deter Egypt from supporting Iraq.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Arrests

On July 14, 2005, United States troops arrested Khamis Farhan Khalaf abd al Fahdawi, the Al-Qaida leader alleged to be responsible for al-Sherif's murder.