Kenya on Saturday pleaded again with kidnappers to release three of its nationals held hostage in Iraq, saying it cannot meet the abductors’ new demands.
”We are now requesting that the kidnappers release the Kenyan hostages because their employer has promised to pull out of Iraq,” said government spokesperson Alfred Mutua.
Kenyan government had already appealed on Thursday for the release of its nationals, three truck drivers. ”We plead with the kidnappers to release the men so that they can be reunited with their families,” Mutua said then.
The group calling itself ”The Holders of the Black Banners” offered on Friday night a new 48 hour deadline to the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport firm, for which the men worked, to pull out of the Gulf nation. The former deadline was fixed for Saturday.
The group added on Friday a new demand of ”payment of damages to families of victims of Fallujah and the release of Iraqi detainees from American and Kuwaiti prisons”, according to the Al-Jazeera news channel.
”As a country, we cannot meet these new demands, because we were not part of the attacks in Fallujah and we are not holding any Iraqi prisoner,” Mutua added.
At least 11 people were killed this week as US forces said they carried out airstrikes against a suspected hideout of alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah.
The group, also described as Black Flags, on Wednesday kidnapped three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian, all truck drivers, and had originally set a deadline of Saturday, saying it would then start to behead one hostage every 72 hours. – Sapa-AFP