Iraqi clerics fear for French
2004-08-31 16:57
Baghdad - Iraq's highest Sunni Muslim religious organisation admitted on Tuesday it was not able to make contact with Islamist militants holding two French hostages, and said it feared they could be executed.
"It is greatly regrettable that we could not have a direct channel to contact the kidnappers," Sheikh Mohammed Bashar al-Faydhi, spokesperson for Iraq's committee of ulema (scholars), told a news conference.
"It's for this reason that we are sending an open letter to the kidnappers through this news conference... because of the gravity of the issue and given that the ultimatum is approaching expiry," he said.
"We fear that all this will end in the execution of the two hostages," Faydhi added.
The two journalists have been kidnapped by a Sunni Muslim group which is demanding that France revoke a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in state schools.
- SAPA