Iraq Militants Threaten to Kill American

AP wire ^ | April 10, 2004 | AP wire

[varina davis]

Iraq Militants Threaten to Kill American

April 10, 2004 03:23 PM EDT

BAGHDAD - Militants on Saturday threatened to kill and mutilate Thomas Hamill, an American civilian captured during the ambush of a convoy west of Baghdad. Also Saturday, the kidnappers of three Japanese taken hostage in Iraq said they will release them within 24 hours, the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera reported.

The kidnappers of the Japanese, identifying themselves as the "Muhahedeen Squadron," said they made the decision after mediation by the Islamic Clerics Committee, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim organization, Al-Jazeera reported.

In a statement, the kidnappers urged the Japanese public to press their government to withdraw its troops from Iraq, the station said.

Videotape delivered to Al-Jazeera, as well as Associated Press Television News, on Thursday showed the three Japanese - two aid workers and a journalist - blindfolded and threatened by masked men with guns and knives.

The kidnappers threatened to burn the hostages alive if Japan did not promise within three days to pull its troops out of Iraq.

In another videotape given to Al-Jazeera, the American civilian Hamill was shown in front of an Iraqi flag. A spokesman off camera demanded that U.S. troops end their siege of the city of Fallujah, where four American civilians were killed and mutilated last week.

"Our only demand is to remove the siege from the city of mosques," a spokesman said in a tape given to the Al-Jazeera television network. "If you don't respond within 12 hours ... he will be treated worse than those who were killed and burned in Fallujah."

Hamill was captured by gunmen who rocketed a fuel convoy on the road between Baghdad and Fallujah on Friday. He identified himself to a reporter for Australian television seconds before being whisked away in a car by gunmen.

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[txhurl]

I'd say you're right. Potential 'hostages' shouldn't be much many more.

[Cultural Jihad]

I know we'd never do it of course. But ... maybe just the mere threat of it would cause them to sit up and take notice.

In other words, you are just venting and hyperventilating.

[Shaun_MD]

"In other words, you are just venting and hyperventilating"

No, I was dead serious about what I said earlier.