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GAZA - A little-known Islamist group claimed responsibility in an audio recording last night for abducting the BBC's Gaza correspondent, issuing demands immediately rebuffed by the Palestinian Government.
As evidence that it is holding Alan Johnston, the group posted on the Internet a photo of his BBC identification card.
The posting appeared to be the first tangible evidence that Johnston, who disappeared on March 12 while driving his car in the Gaza Strip, had been kidnapped.
"We demand that Britain free our prisoners, particularly the honourable Sheikh Abu Qatada al Filistini," said a speaker on the audio recording, posted on the Internet by a group that calls itself the "Jaysh al Islam", or Army of Islam.
Abu Qatada, a radical Islamic cleric suspected of close links to al Qaeda, is one of more than a dozen Arab men whom Britain has been holding under detention or house arrest as threats to national security, while acknowledging that it does not have sufficient evidence to put them on trial.
Mohammed al-Madhoun, a political adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, said the demands made in the audio recording were the same that the group presented privately to the Palestinian Government.
"These demands are beyond the boundaries of the Palestinian area and I do not think they are doable."
The BBC said it had no comment on the demands on the British Government in the tape.
- REUTERS
