http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_rapeBAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni insurgent groups including al-Qaida in Iraq have called for revenge attacks after second rape allegation against the Shiite-dominated security forces.
The second rape allegation to be made in a television interview "€ an unusual development in Iraq, where the crime is rarely reported or spoken of "€ is putting more pressure on the Iraqi government, its army and police in their desperate fight against the country's enduring Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence.
The al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, purportedly called on his followers Thursday to step up attacks on Iraqi security forces to avenge the alleged rapes in Baghdad and the northern town of Tal Afar near the Syrian border.
He also claimed in an audio tape that 300 followers have volunteered for suicide missions within hours of hearing news of the alleged rape in Baghdad, which the woman said took place in a police garrison.
The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified, but the voice sounded like al-Masri's and it appeared on Web sites commonly used by the militant groups.
At least six groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, have called for revenge since the first rape claim was made on Monday, according to IntelCenter, a U.S. group that tracks extremist messages.
The rape allegations by Sunni Arab women, particularly that of a 20-year-old who said she was raped by three policemen last weekend, have angered Sunni politicians, as well as the insurgent groups.
The latest rape allegation, made by a 50-year-old woman from Tal Afar, is likely to further undermine the reputation of the Iraqi forces that Washington hopes can soon take over from U.S. and allied forces so they can go home.
Sunni Arab politicians opposed to the Shiite-led government have seized on the charges, asserting that they know of hundreds of similar but unpublicized cases.
Harith al-Dhari, the head of the hardline Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, told Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television that he knew of hundreds of rapes over the past two years.
The woman who made the initial allegations was taken to a U.S.-run medical facility Sunday, the day she said she was raped, and released the following day.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said evidence in the case was being preserved "so that it may be provided to the appropriate Iraqi judicial official in accordance with U.S. policy."
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said Friday the evidence they release depends upon what the Iraqis need for legal proceedings.
"The investigation is ongoing. As to how much will be released, it depends on how much there is beyond medical records ... and then also how much will become evidence" in any Iraqi legal action, he said.
The alleged victim in the latest case, the 50-year-old woman from Tal Afar, appeared on Al-Jazeera to recount her ordeal when her house was raided Feb. 8 by Iraqi soldiers looking for insurgents and arms.
She said she was raped when she did not provide the soldiers with information they sought on insurgents in the area and that one of them filmed the alleged attack with a cell phone video camera.
Nijm Abdullah, Tal Afar's mayor, said four soldiers were being accused in the case. He said a fifth soldier suspected something was wrong, rushed into the house and forced the others at gunpoint to stop the assault. He refused to say whether the soldiers were Shiites or Sunnis, saying only that they came from Iraq's mainly Shiite south.
President Jalal Talabani, breaking his silence on the political storm swirling around the rape allegations, has appealed for calm, saying the courts were the only place where such cases should be settled.
"Today, we need to trust one another and avoid whatever shakes that trust, stokes sensitivities or fill hearts with malice," Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, said in a statement issued by his office late Thursday
