Aljazeera airs video of German hostages in Iraq
Aljazeera television broadcast a videotape today showing two German engineers abducted this week in northern Iraq.
The station said they appealed to the German government to work for their release.
The two engineers were shown seated on the ground with at least two armed men behind them. The tape was dated January 24 - the day they were abducted in the northern industrial city of Beiji.
The two men were seen speaking but Aljazeera did not broadcast any audio and the station did not report any demands beyond the German government working for their release. The tape showed a hand-written black banner “Supporters of Tawhid and Sunnah Brigades.” Tawhid is the Arabic word for monotheism and Sunnah refers to teachings.
The victims, identified by relatives as Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich, arrived in Iraq on January 22 and only planned to remain “for a short time,” the German Foreign Ministry said.
They were working for a German company in Leipzig which has a commercial relationship with an Iraqi government-owned detergent company in Beiji, an industrial town about 155 miles north of Baghdad.
In Berlin, Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler told ARD television that no contact had been made with the kidnappers and a ministry crisis unit “is working constantly to save the two engineers”.
At least five foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq this month – including two Kenyan communications engineers missing after an ambush in Baghdad on January 18 and American journalist Jill Carroll, who was seized on January 7 in the capital. Her translator was killed.
Carroll’s kidnappers have threatened to kill the 28-year-old freelancer unless all Iraqi women are freed from custody.
The US military released five Iraqi women detainees yesterday, and a top Iraqi police official, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamel, expressed hope the move might help win Carroll’s freedom.
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