Kidnappings bring new chaos

2004-04-08 17:06

Baghdad - Iraqi insurgents kidnapped eight South Koreans, three Japanese and two Arab Israeli aid workers, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened in a video released on Thursday to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo does not withdraw from the US-led coalition within three days.

In Japan, the government said the country has no plans to withdraw its forces from Iraq. It was the first such kidnapping and threat against foreign civilians in Iraq - suggesting a new tactic by militants.

The groups of Japanese, Koreans and Arabs were all apparently kidnapped separately.

The three Japanese were taken in southern Iraq, editors at al-Jazeera said. It wasn't clear who the captors were, but Shiite militiamen in black garb have been engaged in an uprising in the south this week. Japanese troops are based outside the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.

The Arabic TV station al-Jazeera, broadcasting to Iraq and the rest of the Arab world, showed portions of the video released by a previously unknown group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Squadrons" showing the Japanese blindfolded and surrounded by gunmen. It also shows their passports.

Associated Press Television News obtained a copy of the full video, which shows four black-garbed, masked men pointing knives and swords at the captives' chests and throats as they lay on the floor of a room with concrete walls.

At one point, a gunman dressed in black puts a knife to the throat of one of the men; his eyes widen in panic and he struggles to try to get free. The woman weeps and her lips move as if she were speaking, but there was no audio to the footage.

South Koreans

In a separate kidnapping, the eight South Koreans, who are believed to be Christian ministers who set out for Iraq on April 5, were detained by unidentified armed men, a foreign ministry official told AP in Seoul. One of them managed to escape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The South Korean Yonhap News Agency identified them as: Huh Min Young, Lim Young Seok, Hong Gwang Cheon, Cho Jeong Kyon, Lee Myung Sook, Kim Pil Ja and Byun Kyong Ja. It said they were believed to be evangelists from the Christian Council of Korea.

The one who escaped, identified as Kim Sang Mi, told Korean news media that her group had been travelling in two cars on a highway from Amman, Jordan, and was stopped 250km west from the Iraq capital.

"Around one and half hours before our arrival in Baghdad, we were seized by strangers," she said.

She said armed men took them captive after checking their passports, suggesting the seizure might be connected to South Korea's plans to send 3 600 troops to Iraq.

Arab Israeli aid workers

Media in Israel reported that two Arab residents of Jerusalem working for an international aid agency were also kidnapped.

Footage from Iranian television, rebroadcast on Israeli television, showed photographs of the men's documents, which included an Israeli drivers licence, a local health insurance card and a supermarket card. A Georgia drivers licence belonging to one of the men was also displayed.

In the footage, the men identified themselves as Nabil Razouk, 30, and Ahmed Yassin Tikati, 33. Razouk's uncle, Samir, told Israeli TV that he works for the US Agency for International Development.

Japanese

On al-Jazeera, an announcer read a statement that he said came with the video of the three Japanese captives in which the kidnappers issue a three-day ultimatum for Japan to announce it will withdraw its troops from southern Iraq.

"Three of your sons have fallen into our hands," the al-Jazeera announcer read. "We offer you two choices: either pull out your forces, or we will burn them alive. We give you three days starting the day this tape is broadcast."

Japan's NHK television identified the captives as two aid workers and a journalist.

The full video shows the Japanese crouched blindfolded on the floor of a concrete walled room with an iron door. Four masked men dressed in black stand behind them holding automatic weapons and RPG launchers.

The gunmen remove the blindfolds and make the Japanese lie one-by-one on the floor, and point swords and knives at their chests and throats.

The gunmen then show passports identifying the three as: Noriaki Imai, born 1985; Soichiro Koriyama, 32; Nahoko Takato, 34. They also show a press card for Koriyama from the weekly newspaper Asahi.

Japan has about 530 ground troops based in Samawah, part of a total planned deployment of 1 100 soldiers for a mission in Iraq to purify water and carry out other reconstruction tasks.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of the strongest backers of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

About 460 South Korean medics and military engineers have been in Nasiriyah for almost a year. They are to come home after South Korea's planned deployment of up to 3 600 troops to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq later this year.

The kidnappings came amid escalating violence in Iraq.

Earlier this week, two South Korean aid workers were briefly detained by Shiite Muslim forces during a gunbattle with Italian peacekeepers. They were released unharmed.

- AP