The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq disclosed Thursday that it had killed the 51-year-old envoy, five days after gunmen seized him on a street in a diplomatic quarter in western Baghdad, where he had driven alone to buy a local newspaper. Sharif's abduction was followed by attacks on diplomats from Bahrain and Pakistan. Both encounters may also have been foiled kidnapping attempts. A video posted on an Islamic Web site did not show the killing, but the Egyptian government confirmed Sharif's death on Thursday night, and Egypt's state-run television interrupted evening programming for special tributes. A Foreign Ministry statement said the slaying of Sharif, who had previously served in Israel, would not intimidate Egypt. "Egypt stresses that the targeting of one of its sons will not keep it from pursuing its policy toward the people of Iraq," the statement said. Egypt "intends to help Iraqis to attain security and stability and preserve their national unity." Sharif's eldest daughter, Ingy, said in a tearful television interview that her father had spoken often of a sense of duty in helping Iraq, and insisted he would return safely. "He told me, 'Don't worry, if I managed to go to Israel, then I will manage in Iraq,"' Ingy al-Sharif said. "He said, 'We have to see Iraq return to what it was before. I'm not scared at all."' Nonetheless, Sharif's slaying has not been without its impact. Egyptian newspaper and television commentators have since questioned the decision to assign a senior diplomat to Baghdad; some suggested the government had acted in response to pressure from the United States. Sharif had been designated only weeks ago by President Hosni Mubarak's government. He was to become Egypt's first ambassador to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. It was a significant step, given Egypt's powerful position in the Arab world and the fact that Iraq's new leaders are religious Shiites, while Egypt is a mainly Sunni Muslim country that has wide influence among the world's one billion Sunnis. Other countries in the region that had moved to expand diplomatic ties responded on Thursday to the killing and renewed threats against them with a mixture of caution and resolution. The statement announcing the killing was posted on a Web site frequently used by Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born militant named by Osama bin Laden as Al Qaeda's chief representative in Iraq. The announcement said that Sharif's "confessions were taped," but the 90-second video included nothing that resembled an apology. Instead, Sharif, in an open-necked shirt and with a thick blindfold of folded white cloth over his eyes and hands tied behind his back, was shown offering a terse summary of his diplomatic career, in a subdued but steady voice, without comment. Previous videos that Al Qaeda in Iraq has posted announcing hostage executions have shown the actual killings, and the absence of the usual gruesome scenes this time suggested that the killers may have judged that even supporters of the insurgency across the Arab world might be alienated. But in a Web posting on Wednesday that foreshadowed the killing, the group said that it had handed Sharif over to his executioners and referred to "the sharp sword" hanging over him. This suggested that like other victims of the group, including at least two Americans and a Briton killed last year, he might have been beheaded. The Qaeda announcement was redolent of the urge for revenge against the Mubarak government for its long history of repressing Islamic militant groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt more than 50 years ago and an inspiration for the current generation of Islamic militants across the world. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the most powerful of Qaeda's leaders after bin Laden, served time in Egyptian jails for his role in the Muslim Brotherhood and its involvement in the 1981 assassination of Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar al-Sadat. "Egypt's jails are full of mujahedeen, and its courts judge without God's law," the Qaeda statement said. "They imposed the death penalty on many of the believers, including our Sheik Ayman al-Zawahiri, may God protect him." The statement condemned the Mubarak government for its ties to Israel, saying the "conspiracy against al-Quds," the Arabic name for Jerusalem, was started by Egypt with its policy of détente with Israel. "Be sure your brothers in Al Qaeda will go on fighting and killing anyone who cooperates with the Jews and Christians," it said. After two carloads of insurgents seized Sharif on Sunday, pistol-whipping him as they dragged him away from a news vendor's sidewalk stall, the Zarqawi group said that other diplomats in the 49 diplomatic missions in Baghdad - 18 from other Arab and Muslim countries - would face the same fate, a warning it repeated when it announced Sharif's killing. His abduction was followed on Tuesday by drive-by shootings aimed at the ambassador from Pakistan and the top diplomat from Bahrain, but both men survived. Pakistan has withdrawn its ambassador to Jordan, saying he will return from Amman when security conditions permit. Other Arab missions have said their governments are reviewing their status, but Jordan, which said last month that it intended to appoint an ambassador to lead its Baghdad mission, has said the commitment stands. Only hours before the announcement of Sharif's killing, Al Qaeda in Iraq increased the pressures on Muslim diplomats by saying in a separate Web posting that "all Muslims" should stay away from Baghdad's international airport, which it described as "a standing target." With all roads out of Baghdad considered too dangerous for normal land travel, diplomats, like most other foreigners, are restricted to air travel when moving inside Iraq, and heading home. While the United States has pressed hard for friendly Arab countries to upgrade their Iraqi ties, it has been wary of the new government's ties with another neighbor, Iran. U.S. diplomats and military commanders said Thursday that they were still weighing an announcement that Iraq and Iran had reached agreement in Tehran on a military cooperation pact that will include Iranian training for Iraqi military units. Iraq's defense minister, Saadoun al-Dulaimi, was quoted by Agence France-Presse as having told reporters after the signing ceremony, "Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries." Hassan M. Fattah contributed reporting from Cairo.