US marine taken hostage

2004-06-27 22:15

Doha - An armed group claiming to have kidnapped US marine, threatened in a video broadcast by al-Jazeera television on Sunday to behead the captive unless Iraqi prisoners were released in the war-torn country

The group, which called itself the "Islamic Retaliation Movement - Armed Resistance Wing," said it had abducted the marine of Pakistani origin and would execute him unless detainees in US-led coalition prisons were freed.

The videotape showed the man, dressed in military fatigues, seated at a table with a blindfold around his head. It also showed marine identification papers.

A coalition spokesperson in Baghdad said he had no information on whether the report was true.

"We're trying to confirm that," Major Earl Bluff said.

It was the third such broadcast of a kidnapping in Iraq in the past two days.

One other US serviceman is being held by Iraqi insurgents - Matt Maupin, captured on April 9 when his convoy was ambushed outside Baghdad.

Threats to behead Pakistani

Earlier on Sunday, it was reported that a Pakistani man working for a subcontractor of Kellogg Brown & Root had been taken hostage in Iraq by insurgents who threatened to kill him unless the United States releases all prisoners it holds.

In a videotape provided by a journalist working in Baghdad, one of the hostage-takers threatened to behead the man in three days unless the US frees the prisoners.

The kidnapped man, wearing a Kellogg Brown & Root tag that identifies him as Amjid Yousef, is surrounded by masked men brandishing AK-47 rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

A KBR official confirmed to CNN that the identification number on the badge matched that of a subcontractor missing for several days.

The Pakistani's captors said they were following in the footsteps of the Islamic militant group Unification and Jihad, which is blamed in the killings of South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and American businessman Nicholas Berg.

Turkey

Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape on Saturday in which Unification and Jihad militants said they had kidnapped three Turkish citizens and would behead them in 72 hours unless Turkey withdrew its companies from Iraq.

US officials said they believe Unification and Jihad is linked to fugitive militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted terrorist in Iraq.

Turkey rejected the kidnappers' demands on Sunday.

"Turkey has been fighting terrorist activity for more than 20 years," Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said. "They ask many things, they demand many things. We never consider them with seriousness."

$10m reward

The coalition renewed its call for tips leading to al-Zarqawi's capture and issued a reminder of the $10m bounty on the Jordanian-born suspect, whom the coalition says is linked to al-Qaeda. News of the Turkish kidnappings came just before President Bush arrived in Turkey for the Nato summit, where member nations will consider a request from Iraq to help train its fledgling security forces.

Tuesday's meeting will take place the day before the handover of sovereignty in Iraq, and a key question at the summit will be whether Nato as a whole should formally take on a new role in Iraq.

- AFP