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Video shows four activists held in Iraq

(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-30 09:01

Al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video Tuesday showing four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnappings.

The Swords of Righteousness Brigade said the four were spies working undercover as Christian peace activists, Al-Jazeera said. The station said it could not verify any of the information on the tape.

The aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams has confirmed that four of its members were taken hostage Saturday.

German TV broadcast photos Tuesday showing a blindfolded German woman being led away by armed captors in Iraq. Six Iranian pilgrims, meanwhile, were abducted by gunmen north of Baghdad.

This is an image taken from an Arab Satellite TV channel of two of four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq and broadcast Tuesday Nov. 29, 2005. [AP]

The pictures of Susanne Osthoff were taken from a video in which her captors demanded that Germany stop any dealings with Iraq's government, according to Germany's ARD television. Germany has ruled out sending troops to Iraq and opposed the U.S.-led war.

Two U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb north of the capital, the U.S. command said. At least 2,109 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

A suicide car bomber killed eight Iraqi soldiers and wounded five more when he drove into an army patrol Tuesday in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Ali Hussein said. A U.S. Army medical helicopter helped evacuate the wounded, he added.

US President Bush told reporters in El Paso, Texas, he would make decisions about U.S. troop levels in Iraq based on the advice of his military commanders.

"If they tell me the Iraqis are ready to take more and more responsibility and that we'll be able to bring some Americans home, I will do that," the president said. "It's their recommendation."

Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who manages the training of Iraqi security forces, told National Public Radio on Tuesday that 212,000 people in the police and army are trained and equipped, although he suggested that more needed to be done.

"Now you know they lack some capabilities that we still have to provide them and will continue to have to provide them for a period of time," Dempsey said. "They're short officers because we brought in some senior officers, and we grew some junior leaders but not enough. They require about 8,000 junior leaders and they're hovering just now about 4,500 or so."

"We're focused very carefully now on logistics, communications and the generation of an officer corps," he said.

Iraq was rocked 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-Qaida in Iraq, seized more than 225 people, killing at least 38 — including three Americans.

The video on Al-Jazeera showed four men and a British passport belonging to Norman Kember. The British government and the Christian Peacemaker Teams have both said Kember, a 74-year-old Briton, was among the four activists taken hostage.

Christian Peacemaker Teams said it would not identify the other three for their protection.

"In the interests of their safety our Iraq team needs that space to locate them," group spokesman Rebecca Johnson said. "The communication that may be coming from us does not help them to locate them."

A white-haired man shown in the passport photograph also was seen sitting on the floor next to three other men in the video, which had a date stamp indicating it was recorded Sunday.