Turkish hostage threatened with beheading
An Arabic television station broadcast video today showing three hooded gunmen threatening to behead a Turkish hostage within three days unless their conditions are met.
They are demanding that the Americans release all Iraqi prisoners and all Turks leave Iraq.
One of the three gunmen identified the kidnappers as Tawhid and Jihad, responsible for beheading several foreign hostages in Iraq including Briton Ken Bigley last Thursday.
However, the tape, aired by Al-Arabiya television, did not feature the group’s banner which has always appeared in Tawhid and Jihad video statements.
“We of the group of Tawhid and Jihad announce … that we will cut off the head of this hostage if our demands are not met,” the speaker said as the hostage’s eyes darted from one side to another.
"We have long warned them not to enter the land of Islam and land of Jihad, the land of Iraq.”
The video showed the hostage’s passport but the name could not be determined.
Al-Jazeera television said yesterday that 10 Turkish construction company staff had been freed by kidnappers. They were said to have been held by another Islamic group, the Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq.
