Threats to behead hostage

2004-06-27 20:41

Dubai - An armed group holding a Pakistani hostage has threatened to behead the captive within 72 hours unless prisoners are released in Iraq, in a video broadcast by al-Arabiya television on Sunday.

The Dubai-based satellite news channel showed four hooded gunmen standing behind a man who was described as a Pakistani employee.

A member of the group, reading a statement, said they captured the Pakistani who worked at a US base in Balad, 75km north of Baghdad, and threatened to kill him within three days unless local detainees were freed.

The ID of the Pakistani was shown, naming him as Yousf Amjid, an employee of US contractor Kellogg Brown and Root.

KBR is a subsidiary of the giant Halliburton company which was once headed by US vice-president Dick Cheney. Like other contractors for the US-led coalition, it has suffered mounting attacks on its staff.

In another segment of footage, the hostage said he had travelled to Iraq from neighbouring Kuwait in seach of work.

Amjid called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to close his country's embassy in Baghdad and to repatriate all Pakistanis, while urging compatriots to stay away.

"There is no work here. I ask you not to come," he said.

- AFP