The Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni Arab extremist group, threatened on Tuesday to kill a United States hostage within 48 hours unless all prisoners in Iraq are released, as new pleas were made for the release of four Western peace activists held by other militants.
Al-Jazeera satellite television, which announced the Islamic Army claim, broadcast a videotape of a blond man, his arms tied behind his back and seated on a chair.
It showed the cover of a US passport and a Bank of Jordan account number card bearing the name of Ronald Schulz, but did not specify when or how he was seized.
The Islamic Army, which has claimed several kidnappings and murders in Iraq in the past, said Schulz was a security advisor to Iraq’s housing and construction ministry.
It threatened to kill him unless all prisoners in Iraq are freed and compensation paid to al-Anbar province, which has been the scene of several US offensives against insurgents, Qatar-based al-Jazeera said.
”The group gave Washington 48 hours to implement its demands for the immediate release of all prisoners … and compensation to the inhabitants of al-Anbar province for all the losses they have suffered, or else it will kill him,” it said.
Adam Ereli, deputy spokesperson for the US State Department in Washington, could not confirm the identity of the hostage or whether he was an American.
”We are trying to match the person purported to be on the videotape with those who are in Baghdad,” Ereli told reporters. ”At this time, I can’t say that a definitive match has been made.”
The Islamic Army claimed the killing of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni in August 2004 and the kidnapping of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were released in December 2004 after four months in captivity.
Meanwhile, the Middle East Council of Churches and the International Islamic Forum for Dialogue issued a joint statement appealing for the release of two Canadians, a Briton and an American working for Christian Peacemaker Teams.
They were abducted last month by the previously unknown ”Brigades of the Swords of the Righteous”.
The group has threatened to kill them if all inmates of Iraqi and US prisons in the war-torn country are not released by Wednesday.
A statement said the four peace campaigners were known throughout the region for ”charitable work undertaken on behalf of the Palestinian people”.
”We urge those who kidnapped these innocent philanthropists to release them immediately.”
Canadians James Loney (41) and Harmeet Singh Sooden (32) were abducted in Baghdad along with Briton Norman Kember (74) and US national Tom Fox (54).
Fox’s daughter Katherine Fox told ABC news Tuesday her Quaker father felt ”so welcomed by all the Iraqi people, how well his neighbors took care of him, a guest in their country.”
”I do not think a loss of his life benefits their cause,” she told ABC news.
A German woman and a Frenchman have also been kidnapped.
In Berlin, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would use its resources in Iraq to help save 43-year-old Susanne Osthoff.
”We will do everything we can through our people in Iraq to ensure a favourable outcome,” Rice said after a meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Merkel said she has asked Rice for ”the help of the American services, to the extent that help can be given”.
Osthoff, an aid worker and convert to Islam who has been living in Iraq for several years, has been missing along with her driver since November 25.
Merkel on Sunday admitted that her government had no information about the whereabouts of Osthoff.
Press reports said the kidnappers had set a deadline last Tuesday of three days for Germany to stop training Iraqi police officers as the price for her release.
The reports said the demand expired early Friday.
The French embassy in Baghdad said it was also working to win the release of a French engineer kidapped at gunpoint in the capital on Monday.
”We are doing everything possible for the release of Bernard Planche,” said an embassy official.
Planche, who works for an organisation called AACCESS involved in the social and economic sector, was snatched from his home in the upmarket neighbourhood of Mansur.
The embassy had said it was concerned for the 52-year-old’s safety, accusing him of failing to take the necessary security steps.
Around 40 foreigners remain missing or reported kidnapped since a spate of snatchings first blighted Iraq in April 2004. – AFP