TV shows foreign hostage

2004-04-10 20:48

Baghdad, Iraq - TV footage on Saturday showed Iraqi insurgents holding a foreigner, apparently American, prisoner in a car after fighting outside Baghdad the day before, the latest in a rash of kidnappings of foreigners in Iraq during this week's violence.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself the "Marytr Ahmed Yassin Brigades" in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad and Fallujah, claimed in footage obtained by Associated Press Television News to have 30 hostages from a variety of countries.

But the footage, obtained by APTN and aired on Al-Arabiya TV, showed no images of any hostages, and there was no way to verify the group's claims.

The prisoner, who spoke with an American accent and had a bandage on his arm and blood and dirt on his jeans, was shown sitting in the back seat of a car, with a masked gunman next to him waving an automatic rifle, on the main highway on Baghdad's western edge where fighting took place on Friday.

The footage, taken by a cameraman from Australia's ABC television and broadcast in Australia on Saturday, was filmed on Friday. The prisoner, speaking through the car's open window, identified himself as Thomas Hamill and said he was part of a convoy that was attacked.

'They attacked our convoy'

When asked by an ABC reporter what happened, the man said: "They attacked our convoy. That's all I'm going to say."

The car then drove off quickly down the highway with Hamill still in the back seat, passing a burning tanker truck on the road. The prisoner, who had light hair and a moustache, wore what appeared to be a light flak jacket of the sort worn by private security guards, who are often contracted to protect convoys.

Gunmen attacked a fuel convoy on Friday in Abu Ghreib on the main highway outside Baghdad, setting a tanker on fire and killing one US soldier and an Iraqi driver.

ABC's foreign editor, Peter Cave, said he and the cameraman had arrived at Abu Ghreib to cover the fighting. A car pulled up to him and masked, armed men got out and told the cameraman to record images of a man in the back of the car.

Insurgents elsewhere in Iraq have kidnapped three Japanese, a Canadian and an Arab from Jerusalem. Those holding the Japanese have threatened to kill them unless Tokyo withdraws its troops from Iraq by Sunday, a demand Japan's prime minister has refused.

Missing

A British citizen and two German security officials from their country's embassy in Baghdad are also missing, though it is not known if they have been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, in the "Marytr Ahmed Yassin Brigades" video, the masked gunman claimed to have hostages from Japan, Bulgaria, the United States, Israel, Spain and South Korea. He demanded that US and allied troops withdraw.

"If the siege of Fallujah is not lifted, we will cut off their heads," he said.

He claimed that his fighters had killed four American soldiers and said "we have their bodies".

The footage showed an image of a body with clothes covered in blood that the gunman claimed was that of an American soldier. The body's face could not be seen.

Spanish officials said they had no information about missing citizens. Other countries haven't yet commented.

- AP