The Guardian

De Mello killer revealed

July 9, 2004 3:50pm Europe Intelligence Wire

An Egyptian militant who once played hockey for a top Italian club was the suicide driver who took a lorry loaded with explosives into the UN compound which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, its top envoy, and 21 other people last August, according to a video tape obtained by the Guardian.

The tape, which attempts to glorify several suicide bombers who have died in Iraq over the past year, says Abu Farida al-Masri, described as Egyptian, had a history of violent attacks.

"On his return from Italy he ran several operations against filthy Egyptian Coptic Christians, who were specialising in removing the virginity of Muslim women," the tape says.

It goes on to say that Abu Farida had a dream in which, he told his friends later, "God will give me the head of a Christian". The tape then says that the dream came true with the killing of Mr de Mello with the use of a lorry containing several tons of explosives.

The UN building was full of "agents", it claims. But Mr de Mello was specially targeted because the top UN envoy "had been used like a surgeon's scalpel to cut East Timor from Indonesia and cut up Yugoslavia, and the [UN] wanted to cut Iraq into pieces also".

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