Afghan militants threaten to kill UN hostages
A militant group claiming responsibility for kidnapping three foreign UN workers said today it will execute them unless Britain withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and two other governments stop supporting US policy.
A spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, a splinter group of the Taliban, told The Associated Press it had made a video of the three hostages – but provided no evidence that it was holding the trio.
Unidentified armed men kidnapped Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan and Kosovan Shqipe Habibi in Kabul on Thursday. All were helping manage Afghanistan’s historic election.
“If these countries don’t agree to our demands, we will do the same thing as the mujahedeen are doing in Iraq,” Ishaq Manzoor, a purported spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, said by satellite telephone.
Foreign troops under NATO and US command and Afghan security forces have mounted extra patrols and roadblocks in and around Kabul since the election workers were forced from their clearly-marked UN car into a black sports utility vehicle on a busy street.
But it remains unclear whether militants, renegade warlords or criminals were responsible.
“We don’t know exactly who they are,” interim leader Hamid Karzai said after a meeting with commanders of NATO troops deployed to bolster Afghan security forces. “We have some leads. We have a list of some people. Let’s hope the UN workers are safe and sound, and we are working very hard to bring them back to their families.”.
Karzai secured a majority in the October 9 presidential vote, although he has yet to be officially declared the country’s first popularly elected leader.
Manzoor, who said he was speaking from near the Afghan-Pakistan border, also demanded the release of all Afghan detainees from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the search for the abductees be called off.
“We may kill them if we could not get a positive response,” he said.
He said the video would be released “in two or three days” to an Arab television channel.
He also provided what he said were the numbers from identity cards found on two of the hostages. Afghan and UN officials had no immediate comment on their validity.
