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Militants threaten to kill Iraq hostages
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-19 07:51
An al-Qaida linked group threatened in a videotape Saturday to behead two
Americans and a Briton within two days, and insurgents carried out a new string
of car bombings, killing at least 20 Iraqis and two American soldiers.
This is an image
made Saturday Sept 18, 2004, from a Web site known for its Islamic
militant content which apparently shows a British and two American
hostages seized in Iraq on Thursday. The men identified themselves as from
left, Briton Kenneth Bigley and Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack
Hensley. The authenticity of the tape could not be verified. The masked
speaker dressed in black and standing behind the men read from a statement
that militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group would
kill the men in 48 hours unless the United States and Britain release
Iraqi women detained at Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons.
[AP] | The unrelenting violence has taken 300
lives in the past week.
The videotape was the first word on the fate of Americans Jack Hensley and
Eugene Armstrong and Briton Kenneth Bigley since the three construction workers
were kidnapped from their Baghdad home two days earlier.
"My job consists of installing and furnishing camps at Taji base," each man
said in turn after identifying himself, as all three sat on the floor,
blindfolded, slightly bowed but apparently unharmed. At one point, a militant's
rifle pointed down at the head of the man who identified himself as Hensley.
The Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
claimed responsibility for the abduction and demanded the release of Iraqi women
detained in two American prisons.
The videotape was broadcast by Al-Jazeera shortly before it revealed a fresh
kidnapping claim. Another group claimed it had kidnapped 10 workers for an
American-Turkish company and threatened to kill them in three days if their firm
didn't leave Iraq.
Kidnappings and spectacular bombings have become the signature weapons of
insurgents waging a 17-month campaign against U.S. and Iraqi forces, a campaign
that has persisted since the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi
took power in June.
Nevertheless, Allawi insisted U.S. and Iraqi forces were winning the fight
and said progress would be made to calm the violence before crucial elections
set for January.
The insurgency is "not getting stronger; it's getting more desperate. We are
squeezing out the insurgency," Allawi said, speaking in an interview due to be
aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
"We are winning. We will continue to win. And we are going to prevail," he
said.
Guerrillas have struck with increasing sophistication in Baghdad, the center
of Allawi's authority, and have dealt punishing blows against Iraq's security
forces — which are the lynchpin of the U.S.-Iraqi strategy for fighting the
insurgency.
On the road to Baghdad's airport Saturday, insurgents set off a car bomb near
an overpass as a U.S. convoy passed, wounding three U.S. soldiers. When other
American troops moved to the scene, another car bomb exploded, killing two
soldiers and wounding eight more.
This is an image
made Saturday Sept 18, 2004, from a Web site known for its Islamic
militant content which apparently shows a British and two American
hostages seized in Iraq on Thursday. [AP] | In the
northern city of Kirkuk, a car sped at a crowd of would-be recruits lined up at
the offices of the Iraqi National Guard. Guardsmen opened fire on the vehicle
and it exploded, leaving the street strewn with bloodied bodies, twisted metal
and shards of glass.
At least 19 people were killed and 67 wounded, the Health Ministry said.
It was the third bombing this week targeting the beleaguered security forces,
seen as collaborators with the United States and its allies.
The attack occurred as recruits lined up to read the lists of those who had
passed the physical fitness test, said Rustem Abdellah, one of the job-seekers
who suffered burns to his face and chest.
"I am a graduate from the oil institute," Abdellah, 33, said from his
hospital bed. "But there are no jobs available in the oil sector, and I was
forced to join the guard force because of the difficult economic situation."
Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded in a small side street in central
Baghdad, killing one Iraqi man and seriously wounding two, police and witnesses
said.
The hostage videotape showed the American and British captives aired in part
on Al-Jazeera television before it was posted in full on a Web site known for
carrying Islamic militant material.
In the tape, a masked militant dressed in black stood behind the men and read
from a statement, saying the three were kidnapped because they offer logistic
support to American troops. He threatened to kill them unless Iraqi women
detained at the American-controlled Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons are freed
within 48 hours.
A U.S. military official said only two Iraqi women were in U.S. custody.
The militant accused Allawi of enabling "infidel foreigners" to "violate the
honor of Muslim women, humiliate people and suck up the riches of the country"
and gave the United States and Britain 48 hours to release Iraqi women detained
at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca at Umm Qasr in the British
controlled south.
If the demand is not met, the speaker warned: "By the name of God, these
three hostages will get nothing from us except their throats slit and necks
chopped, so they will serve as an example."
In Armstrong's home town of Hillsdale, Mich., his brother, Frank Armstrong,
said he'd spoken with the FBI about the abduction but declined to comment
further.
"We only know what they're showing on television," said Minnta Davis,
Armstrong's cousin. "We just know there are just a lot of prayers for him."
Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services, the employer of the kidnapped
Americans and Briton, refused to comment on the tape when contacted by The
Associated Press.
Both the prison facilities named in the video are run by American forces. Abu
Ghraib is the prison where U.S. soldiers were photographed sexually humiliating
male prisoners. Fears about the safety of women inmates have multiplied since
then.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said coalition
forces do not hold any women at Abu Ghraib or at Camp Bucca.
"The only females we hold are two high-value detainees, which are kept with
the other approximately 100 high-value detainees in a separate, secure
location," Johnson said.
He did not rule out the possibility that women were among an estimated 1,500
prisoners at an Iraqi facility for convicted criminals at Umm Qasr.
Justice Ministry official Nouri Abdul Raheem said a U.S.-Iraqi committee
reviewing the cases of detainees had decided to release all women and juveniles
within the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, a previously unknown group calling itself the "Salafist Brigades
of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq" claimed it was holding 10 hostages working for an
American-Turkish company, according to a tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera on
Saturday. The group said the company had to leave Iraq within three days or the
hostages would be killed.
The hostages' nationalities nor the name of their company were not given. The
authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified.
More than 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and many have been
executed. At least five other Westerners are currently being held hostage here,
including an Iraqi-American man, two female Italian aid workers and two French
reporters.
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