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Posted on 04/17/2004 1:10:39 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi guerrillas have paraded a captive U.S. soldier after U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to stamp out all violence in Iraq.
Arabic television station Al Jazeera broadcast a video tape that showed U.S. Private Keith Matthew Maupin held by masked and heavily armed guerrillas after being captured in an attack on a convoy last week.
"A group of mujahideen (holy fighters) has succeeded in taking an American soldier prisoner...and he will be treated in the Islamic tradition of treating prisoners and he is in good health," one guerrilla read from a statement.
The poor-quality tape showed Maupin dressed in military fatigues sitting on the floor.
Later in the tape Maupin -- one of two U.S. soldiers missing amid a spate of kidnappings this month that has snared foreign civilians from more than a dozen countries -- identified himself in a soft voice.
"We have seen the video tape of Matt... I'm sure (it is him). Our family is very happy and prays for Matt's safety," family spokesman Carl Cottrell told reporters outside the Maupin home in Willowville, Ohio.
"On behalf of his mother...and the rest of his family, we'd like to say, 'Matt, we love you and we can't wait until we get to hug you again'."
Blair said at a joint news conference with Bush after talks at the White House that they would stamp out a rebellion launched this month by radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and also win a long-running battle against Sunni guerrillas.
"WE STAND FIRM"
"We stand firm. We will do what it takes to win this struggle," said Blair, Bush's closest ally on Iraq.
April has been Iraq's bloodiest month since Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago. The U.S. military has lost at least 92 soldiers in combat so far this month -- more than the total killed in the three-week war that toppled Saddam.
"It was never going to be easy," said Blair, also presenting a united front with Bush behind a U.N. envoy's proposal for a caretaker government in Iraq under a planned U.S. handover of power to Iraqis on June 30.
The United States called on governments to contribute troops to a new military force it is setting up in Iraq to protect U.N. international staff on their eventual return to the country.
Shi'ite fighters backing Sadr clashed with U.S. troops near Kufa in southern Iraq as the cleric defied U.S. demands that he disband his militia.
Sadr, however, urged the release of foreign hostages not involved in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
Soon afterwards, a Syrian-born Canadian aid worker kidnapped on April 8 was brought to Sadr's office in Najaf and set free.
Fadi Ihsan Fadel told Reuters "at first (the kidnappers) beat me, then they kept moving me to different locations every few hours", and accused him of being a Jewish spy.
Three Czech journalists were also released.
A Danish businessman was reported to have probably been seized in Taji, north of Baghdad, and a Jordanian-born businessman travelling on a United Arab Emirates passport was abducted in the southern city of Basra.
At least one hostage, an Italian, has been killed by his kidnappers.
SADR HOLED UP IN NAJAF
Sadr is holed up in the city of Najaf, near Kufa, with U.S. forces poised outside vowing to kill or capture him.
Blasts shook Kufa, where Sadr preached in the main mosque, and his militiamen ambushed a U.S. convoy outside the town. U.S. officers said one U.S. soldier was wounded and one tank was hit.
"Then they started mortaring our position so we had to retreat," said one Shi'ite fighter, dressed in the black uniform of Sadr's Mehdi Army as smoke rose above Kufa.
Hospital sources said at least five people were killed.
The U.S. military, with 2,500 troops near Najaf, says the Mehdi Army must be disbanded or destroyed, but has allowed Shi'ite clerics and an Iranian envoy to mediate.
Sadr said at Friday prayers he would not disband his militia under any circumstances "because I did not create it on my own but with the cooperation of the Iraqi people".
Any attack in Najaf, home to some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines, could inflame Iraq's Shi'ite majority whose support is vital to U.S. plans for the country's political future.
Tens of thousands of Shi'ites chanted support for Sadr in his main power base, the Baghdad slum district of Sadr City.
"Rivers of your blood will flow," Sheikh Nasser al-Saedi told the crowd in a warning to U.S. forces not to attack Najaf.
In Iraq's other major flashpoint, Falluja, U.S. troops fought Sunni guerrillas and a hospital official in the city west of Baghdad said 15 people were killed in overnight clashes.
But for the first time a senior civilian and a senior military officer representing the U.S.-led administration in Iraq joined talks to halt the fighting that started on April 5.
"It is our way of showing how serious we are about trying to minimise the bloodshed," said Dan Senor, chief spokesman for the U.S.-led administration.
U.S. Marines began an assault on Falluja after the killing and mutilation of four U.S. private security guards in the city. Doctors say more than 600 Iraqis have died in fighting.
A shaky truce of several days has been hit by some clashes.
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"A group of mujahideen (holy fighters) has succeeded in taking an American soldier prisoner...and he will be treated in the Islamic tradition of treating prisoners and he is in good health," one guerrilla read from a statement.
Amen. Joining you in prayer for Pfc. Keith Maupin!
So he's in for torture, murder, mutilation????
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