More attacks in Iraq after secret meeting
Call for bombings: Terror leader al-Zarqawi may have attended the militant gathering last month in Syria
By Paul Garwood
The Associated Press
Salt Lake Tribune

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's top al-Qaida terrorist, angered by a postelection lull in violence, ordered insurgents a month ago to intensify attacks, and his lieutenants began plotting their deadly mission during a secret meeting in Syria, a top U.S. military official said Wednesday.
The Syrian meeting, possibly attended by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi himself, has led to one of the bloodiest periods since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago. Nearly 500 people have been killed - including an Iraqi general mowed down in a driveby shooting Wednesday - since the country's new Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28.
Several Shiite and Sunni Muslim clerics were among the victims, raising fears that sectarian tensions could ignite a civil war.
A rambling Internet audiotape denounced Iraq's Shiites as U.S. collaborators and said killing them is justified.
''God ordered us to attack the infidels by all means . . . even if armed infidels and unintended victims - women and children - are killed together,'' said the speaker purported to be al-Zarqawi. ''The priority is for jihad so anything that slows down jihad should be overcome.'' The tape could not immediately be authenticated.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi and his key militant leadership have met at least five times in foreign countries during the conflict, most recently during the past 30 days in Syria, according to the senior U.S. military official, who briefed reporters on condition he not be named.
He did not identify the other countries but said neighboring Iran, a Shiite theocracy, was not one of them.
He said the military obtained information during questioning of insurgent prisoners, from Iraqi military sources and field intelligence in determining that the most recent meeting had taken place in Syria.
The Syrian foreign and information ministries were unavailable for comment on the alleged terrorist gathering on their soil.
The United States, at the highest leadership levels, repeatedly has demanded that Syria do more to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq across their porous 380-mile-long border.
In response to al-Zarqawi's call, there had been 21 car bombings, mostly suicide attacks, in Baghdad during May. That compares with 25 such attacks in all of 2004, the official said.