Posted on 04/10/2004 4:41:52 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — TV footage on Saturday showed Iraqi insurgents holding a foreigner, apparently American, prisoner in a car, the latest in a rash of kidnappings of foreigners in Iraq.The prisoner, who spoke with an American accent, was filmed sitting in the back seat of a car with a gunman next to him.
The prisoner told the cameraman his name and that he was part of a convoy that was attacked. The car then whisked away with him still in the back seat, passing a burning tanker truck on the road.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - TV pictures 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 (news - web sites) during this week's violence.
The prisoner, who spoke with a southern American accent and was apparently wounded in the arm, spoke to a cameraman from the back seat of a car with a masked gunman next to him, on the main highway on Baghdad's western edge where fighting took place Friday.
The footage was apparently filmed Friday. The prisoner identified himself as Thomas Hamill to the cameraman, from Australia's ABC television, and said he was part of a convoy that was attacked.
The car then drove off down the highway with him still in the back seat, passing a burning tanker truck on the road. The prisoner 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 Friday in Abu Ghreib on the main highway outside Baghdad, setting a tanker on fire and killing one U.S. soldier and an Iraqi driver.
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.
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.
It is time our special ops begin tailing (probably already do) all AlJazeera TV crews, and all contracted TV crews inside Iraq for that matter.
Bug their phones, plant GPS sensors. Do whatever. All is fair in love and war.
Australian Broadcasting Commision journalists were filming the smoking debris of a truck(from about 300 feet away) on the side of the road when a car pulled up right in front of them.A few Arab fellows,with covered faces,jumped out of the car and gestured for the cameraman to film inside the car.The abductors couldnt speak english and were screaming at both the cameraman and the hostage in the back seat.The reporter asked the hostage what was going on and he said his convoy was bombed further down the road and stated his name.His accent indicated he was American.He said there is no other comment he wishes to make.The car then sped off.The journalists immediately drove to the nearest American post and were shown giving details(including the guys name,and the direction they were headed) of what happened to an American officer who proceeded to pass the info on via his radio.At the time of the broadcast there was no word on whether the car was being tracked.
The abductors sound like the frightened little ones, the American seemed calmer and more collected.
The vermin Islamofascists are kidnapping civilians because the Marines are destroying them where they stand. This whole uprising was coordinated to coincide with the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad because they wanted to disctract from our victory.
We are winning, and they know it. These "fighters" come from Syria, Palestine, Jordan, and (mostly) Iran---in addition to Iraqis who lost a lot when Saddam fell.
We may yet snap defeat from the jaws of victory and screw this thing up. Tet was a military victory that we screwed up by letting the media define it as a defeat.
I pray GW Bush pushes for victory.
I saw this story on Yahoo, and couldn't figure out where they got he was an American and then said he was from the Australian Broadcasting Company.... I finally figured out the comma after the word cameraman shouldn't be there.
Just trying to help anyone else that is confused....
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