Zimbabwe party: Military plotting to kill leader

I could take this with a grain of salt because this is politics we're talking about here. Then again this is Zimbabwe where an aging leader is unwilling to let his power go and allow for a peaceful transition so it isn't a surprise that the opposition is making such an accusation. Sun-Times:

Zimbabwe's opposition party accused the country's military Monday of plotting to assassinate the group's presidential candidate using snipers.

The Movement for Democratic Change said Morgan Tsvangirai planned to return to Zimbabwe to contest the June 27 runoff election once security measures are in place to protect him against the alleged assassination plot. The opposition says it received details of the alleged plot on Saturday as Tsvangirai was on his way to the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to return home.

''The assassination plot involves snipers,'' party Secretary-General Tendai Biti told The Associated Press after a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. He said 18 snipers were involved in the alleged plot.

''It is the military (plotting), the JOC (Joint Operational Command) that has been running the country'' since Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, lost March 29 elections to Tsvangirai. ''I cannot speak (more) of that because it would put a lot of lives at risk,'' Biti said.

Biti also condemned African leaders' failure to confront Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader of 28 years, in the strongest terms yet used by his party.

He said the campaign of violence blamed on Mugabe's regime could backfire, saying that many of the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled the country planning to return to vote in the June runoff presidential election.