AMMAN, July 20 (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Tuesday that Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi was "mentally ill," after the Jordanian fugitive, believed to be a key Al-Qaeda operative, put a 285,000-dollar bounty on his head.
"Zarqawi is mentally ill. He is a pariah rejected by all nations," Allawi said here, on the first leg of a tour of several Middle Eastern countries.
"He does not frighten me," Allawi added. "That man is neither a Muslim nor an Arab.
"He is a true pariah. The proof is that he hides in a black hole and tries to spread his poison against the Iraqi people."
Allawi was responding to journalists` questions about the reward, posted on an Islamist website in the name of the Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade, the "military wing" of Zarqawi`s Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War) group.
The statement offered to the Iraqi people "a reward of 200,000 Jordanian dinars (285,000 dollars) for the one who cuts the head of Allawi."
Its authenticity could not be verified.
Several previous threats to kill Allawi have been issued in Zarqawi`s name.
A July 14 statement said: "Allawi, if you escaped the missiles of death that destroyed your house, there are other missiles ready."
That was presumably a reference to a mortar attack the previous week on the premier`s political party offices and residence close to Baghdad`s heavily fortified city-centre administrative compound.
US aircraft pounded a house in the western Iraqi town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Sunday which they said was the suspected hideout of some 25 supporters of Zarqawi.