New Wave Of Kidnappings
Al Jazeera broadcast video Tuesday of four Western peace activists held hostage by a previously unknown group, part of a new wave of kidnappings police fear is aimed at disrupting next month's elections.
The news station said the four were seized by the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, which claimed they were spies working under the cover of Christian peace activists. The captives an American, a Briton and two Canadians were members of the Chicago-based aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams, which confirmed they disappeared Saturday.
The footage showed Norman Kember, a retired British professor with a shock of white hair, sitting on the floor with three other men. The camera revealed the 74-year-old Kember's passport, but the other hostages were not identified.
Christian Peacemaker Teams identified the other hostages as Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va.; James Loney, 41, of Toronto; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, a Canadian electrical engineer.
The brief, blurry tape was shown the same day German TV displayed a photo of a blindfolded German woman being led away by armed captors in Iraq. The kidnappers threatened to kill aid worker Susanne Osthoff and her Iraqi driver unless Germany halts all contacts with the Iraqi government.
Al Jazeera said the four were seized by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, which claimed they were spies working under the cover of Christian peace activists. It was not clear when the video was made.
The captives were members of the Chicago-based aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams, which confirmed they disappeared Saturday. Besides Kember, Canadian officials said the hostages included two Canadians and an American whose names have not been released.
In other developments:
A group spokeswoman said Christian Peacemaker Teams strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and does not consider itself a fundamentalist organization.
"We are very strict about this: We do not do any evangelism, we are not missionaries," said Jessica Phillips. "Our interest is to bring an end to the violence and destruction of civilian life in Iraq."
Its first activists went to Iraq in 2002, six months before the U.S.-led invasion, Phillips said, adding that a main mission since the invasion has been documenting alleged human rights abuses by U.S. forces.
The German woman and her Iraqi driver were kidnapped Friday, the German government announced. ARD public television said it obtained a video in which the kidnappers made their threats. The station posted a photo on its Web site showing what appears to be Osthoff and her driver blindfolded on the floor, with three masked militants standing by, one with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Osthoff's mother told Germany's N24 news station that her daughter was an archaeologist who was working for a German aid organization distributing medicine and medical supplies since before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq and opposed the U.S.-led war, but has been training Iraqi police and military outside the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed for Osthoff's release.
"The German government sharply condemns the act and urgently appeals to the perpetrators to return both safely and without delay," Merkel said. "The German government will do everything in its power to bring both back to safety."
The six Iranian pilgrims were seized Tuesday near a Shiite religious shrine north of Baghdad, police said. Iranian television reported that all were freed Tuesday night. Iraq and Iran agreed this year to exclude pilgrim visits to shrines in Baghdad and Samarra because of the dangerous security situation.
Iraq was swept by a wave of foreigner kidnappings and beheadings in 2004 and early 2005, but they have dropped off in recent months as many Western groups have left and security precautions for those who remain have tightened. Insurgents, including al Qaeda in Iraq, have seized more than 225 people, killing at least 38 — including three Americans.
It was unclear whether the recent kidnappings were the work of a single group or simply coincidental. However, police believed they may be part of an insurgent campaign to discredit the government and disrupt the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
"Terrorists will try to destabilize the situation during the election period" in order to discourage people from voting, police Maj. Falah Mohammedawi said. "They will try to do this through kidnappings, assassinations and threats to citizens. We have our complete security plan to confront this."
Sheik Hamza Abbas, the Sunni cleric who was assassinated Tuesday, had made contacts with the Americans during the siege of Fallujah last year and had been denounced as a collaborator, residents said. Later, he severed contacts with the Americans.
Abbas, head of the Religious Scholars Council in Fallujah and the mufti of Anbar province, died when two gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons as he was leaving a mosque, his brother Dr. Ahmed Abbas said. He was in his mid 60s.
U.S. and Iraqi officials hope a big turnout in the December election will undermine the insurgency and improve chances for the United States and its partners to begin reducing troop levels in Iraq next year.
To do that, the U.S.-led coalition needs to accelerate the training of an Iraqi army and police force to assume greater security responsibility.