'Stop the slaughter'
2004-08-20 17:26
Doha - Al-Jazeera news channel aired footage on Friday of a US journalist taken hostage in Iraq reading a message from his captors in which they call on the American people to strive to "stop the slaughter" in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
"I am an American journalist in Iraq, and I was asked to pass on a message from the Martyrs Squad, who want the American people to strive to stop the slaughter in Najaf," said Micah Garen in English, according to an Arabic voice-over.
"I am now detained and am being well treated," he said.
Garen's sister, Eva, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television earlier on Friday that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is at the centre of a standoff in Najaf with US and US-backed Iraqi forces, had ordered the immediate release of the journalist.
Al-Jazeera had reported on Wednesday that the so-called "Martyrs Squad" had threatened to kill Garen unless US forces withdraw from Najaf within 48 hours.
- AFP