www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/29/D8E69AT81.html
By ROBERT H REID Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video Tuesday showing four peace activi sts taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming resp onsibility for the kidnappings. The Swords of Righteousness Brigade said the four were spies working unde rcover as Christian peace activists, Al-Jazeera said. The station said i t could not verify any of the information on the tape.
The aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams has confirmed that four of its m embers were taken hostage Saturday. German television broadcast photos Tuesday showing a blindfolded German w oman being led away by armed captors in Iraq. Six Iranian pilgrims, mean while, were abducted by gunmen north of Baghdad. The pictures of Susanne Osthoff were taken from a video in which her capt ors demanded that Germany stop any dealings with Iraq's government, acco rding to Germany's ARD television. Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq and opposed the US-led war. Two US soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad were killed when their p atrol was hit by a roadside bomb north of the capital, the US command said. At least 2,109 members of the US military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. A suicide car bomber killed eight Iraqi soldiers and wounding five more w hen he drove into an army patrol Tuesday in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. A US Army medical helicopter hel ped evacuate the wounded, he added. Iraq was rocked by a wave of foreigner kidnappings and beheadings in 2004 and early 2005, but they have dropped off in recent months as many West ern groups have left and security precautions for those who remain have tightened. Insurgents, including al-Qaida in Iraq, seized more than 225 people, killing at least 38 _ including three Americans. The tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera showed four men and a British passport b elonging to Norman Kember. The British government and the Christian Peac emaker Teams have both said Kember, a 74-year-old Briton, was among the four activists taken hostage. Christian Peacemaker Teams said it would not identify the other three peo ple for their protection. A white-haired man shown in the passport photograph also was seen sitting on the floor next to three other men in the video, which had a date sta mp indicating it was recorded Sunday. The corner of the video showed two, crossed black swords and the name of the insurgent group written in red Arabic script. Christian Peacemaker Teams issued a statement Tuesday saying the four men were working on behalf of Iraqi civilians. The group said it has had a team in Iraq since October 2002, working with US and Iraqi detainees a nd training others in nonviolent intervention and human rights documenta tion. Kember and another person were part of a visiting delegation, while two m embers of the group's Iraq-based staff also were taken, the statement sa id. Kember, a retired professor, is a longtime peace activist who once frette d publicly that he was taking the easy way out by protesting in safety a t home while British soldiers risked their lives in Iraq. The US Embassy has confirmed that an American is missing in Iraq _ pres umably one of the aid workers. A Canadian official has said two Canadian s were in the group. "The team's work has focused on documenting and focusing public attention on detainee abuses, connecting citizens of Iraq to local and internatio nal human rights organizations, and accompanying Iraqi civilians as they interact with multinational military personnel and Iraq's government of ficials," the group said. The statement said those taken hostage knew the risks when they went to I raq. The organization said it "does not advocate the use of violent force to s ave our lives should we be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the mid dle of a conflict situation." In Barcelona, Spain, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he had con tacted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hohshyar Zebari about Kember's abduction, and that Zebari "pledged every assistance from the Iraqi government." Osthoff and her driver have been missing since Friday and, "according to current information, we have to assume it is a kidnapping," German Chanc ellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. She added that the Foreign Ministry has set up a crisis team to help secu re the pair's release. "The German government will do everything in its power to bring both back to safety," Merkel said. Osthoff, 43, is a fluent Arab speaker and a trained archaeologist who has worked since 1998 for the Munich-based management consulting firm Fakto rM, which said on its Web site that she has "organized and supported the distribution of aid goods in Iraq since 1991." She was in Iraq working to help German organizations distribute medicine and medical supplies. "One can only hope and keep their fingers crossed and remain optimistic," her mother, Ingrid Hala, told Germany N24 news station. Hala said she had not heard from her daughter for about five years, and h er uncle, Peter Osthoff, said his niece had broken almost all ties with her family, including a daughter who will be 12 in December. "She has almost no contact with any relatives," he told The Associated Pr ess. Germany's Central Council of Muslims called for Osthoff's immediate relea se. The Iranian pilgrims were abducted Tuesday morning near Balad, 50 miles n orth of Baghdad, police Maj Falah Mohammedawi said, but it was not clea r if the six were going to or coming from Samarra, a central city that h ouses a shrine to two Shiite saints. Iraq and Iran, predominantly Shiite countries, reached an agreement earli er this year on pilgrim visits, which excludes trips to Shiite shrines i n Baghdad and Samarra because of the dangerous security situation. The p ilgrims appear to have been violating that agreement. Insurgents have kidnapped aid workers, journalists and contractors in an attempt to drive foreigners out of the country or to win large ransoms. Since May, abductions have fallen off considerably, mainly because many W estern groups left Iraq and security precautions for those remaining hav e been tightened, with foreigners staying in barricaded compounds and mo ving only in heavily guarded convoys. He was seen in a video aired days afterward, held with a gun to his head, but there has been no word on his fate.
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