Al Jazeera Airs New Video of Four Western Hostages

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Al Jazeera Airs New Video of Four Western Hostages

Published on Saturday, January 28, 2006 by Reuters

Al Jazeera Airs New Video of Four Western Hostages

DUBAI - The captors of four Western peace activists in Iraq said they were giving U.S.-led forces a last chance to free Iraqi prisoners or they would kill the hostages, Al Jazeera television said on Saturday.

A picture released November 30, 2005 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation shows Britain's Norman Kember (C) at a anti-war demonstration in London on March 19, 2005. Briton Norman Kember, American Tom Fox and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped on November 26 in Baghdad, where they were working with a Christian peace organization, by the previously unknown Swords of Truth. REUTERS/Fellowship of Reconciliation/Handout

The Arabic channel aired a video from the Swords of Truth group, apparently showing the two Canadians, one Briton and one American standing against a wall. The grainy footage was dated January 21.

The hostages appeared to be speaking to the camera but their voices could not be heard.

Briton Norman Kember, American Tom Fox and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped on November 26 in Baghdad, where they were working with a Christian peace organization, by the previously unknown Swords of Truth.

The wife of the 74-year-old British hostage appealed for the release of her ailing husband in a televised message on Monday.

The Swords of Truth earlier issued a video of the four men and accused them of spying for U.S.-led forces. It threatened to kill them unless prisoners in Iraqi jails were freed.

Muslim scholars and activists from around the world, including leaders of the militant Hamas and Hizbollah groups, have appealed for the release of the aid workers.

Thousands of civilians have been kidnapped since the fall of Saddam Hussein, including more than 200 foreigners seized by gangs seeking ransom or insurgents trying to put pressure on their governments to withdraw from Iraq. Many have been freed, but about 50 have been killed.

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