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Marines taken hostage: Al-Qaeda

From correspondents in Dubai
October 03, 2005

AL-QAEDA'S branch in Iraq has claimed the abduction of two US marines and threatened to kill them unless US forces released Sunni Muslim female prisoners within 24 hours, according to an Internet statement.

"The Al-Qaeda soldiers were able to take two so-called 'marines' captive after they encircled a foot patrol of the crusaders in the western region," Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers said.

The statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, said the patrol was taking part in "the so-called 'Iron Fist"' offensive along the Syrian border.

"Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers gives the crusaders 24 hours to release Sunni Muslim women from their and their (Shiite) lackeys' prisons ... in Baghdad, Mosul and elsewhere," said the statement posted on an Islamist website.

The statement, parts of which were reported earlier by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel, warned that unless the women prisoners were freed, the US army should "not bother to look for their sons."

"Let it be known to them that the mujahedeen (holy warriors) are itching to slaughter those (alleged hostages) ... to avenge the blood of the Sunni people being shed at their (Americans') hands and the hands of their stooges in the apostate (Iraqi) government," the statement said.

It was accompanied by the signature of the group's purported spokesman, Abu Maysara al-Iraqi.

When asked about the claim, a US military spokesman in Baghdad said that "As of now, we have no information to release."

On Saturday, the US military announced the start of Operation 'Iron Fist' in and around the village of Sadah in Iraq's restive Euphrates Valley, the latest offensive aimed at rooting out Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the border region.

A force of 1,000 troops backed by fighter aircraft and helicopter gunships have so far killed eight insurgents in the offensive aimed at improving security ahead of the vote on the country's post-Saddam Hussein constitution.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16796274%255E1702,00.html