Iraqi Sunnis Demand Hostage Release
Prominent Sunni Arab clerics and residents of a Baghdad neighborhood where four kidnapped Christian humanitarian workers had aided people appealed Friday for their release a day before a deadline set by their abductors to kill them.
They include an American, two Canadians and a Briton and a group known as the Swords of Righteousness has set a Saturday deadline, threatening to kill them unless U.S. and Iraqi authorities free all prisoners.
A French aid worker and a German citizen are also being held by kidnappers.
During prayers in the al-Imam al-Aadam mosque in Baghdad’s predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Azamiyah in north Baghdad, cleric Ahmed Hassan Taha demanded that the four charity workers be released.
“I stress on the necessity to release the four kidnapped foreigners who have helped the residents of Azamiyah,” he said. “We ask those who have authority and power to do their best to release the four European people who work in Christian peace organization, in fact those activists were the first who condemned the war on Iraq.”
Residents gathered outside the mosque, also known as Abu Hanifa, and held aloft banners demanding their release.
“The people of Azamiyah will not forget the honest positions peacemakers,” read one. Another said, “We demand the release of the abducted peacemakers.”
Source: Las Vegas Sun.
There are currently no comments on this thread.