Hostage calls on Britain to leave Iraq

1.00pm

DUBAI - Iraqi-British hostage Margaret Hassan again urged Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq and also to free Iraqi women prisoners, al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

The Arab channel aired a video showing Hassan, an aid worker who was seized by unknown kidnappers in Baghdad a week ago, standing in a dimly lit room.

"Please release the women prisoners from the prison in Iraq," said a tired looking Hassan, director of the Care International charity in Iraq, in her second such appeal and third video appearance.

Her other comments were barely audible.

But al Jazeera said Hassan appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq and not deploy them in Baghdad.

The television station said Hassan also asked Care International employees to end their operations in Iraq. The charity suspended its work in the country after Hassan was kidnapped.

In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We will consider very carefully what response, if any, to make to this latest video."

Earlier this month, militants from al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group beheaded British national Kenneth Bigley after releasing similarly desperate videos in which he pleaded for Blair to meet the demands of his captors.

Unlike Bigley's case, Hassan's captors have not identified themselves, made any direct demands, or appeared in the three videos taken of Hassan after her capture.

In all three videos, Hassan appeared wearing civilian clothes and not an orange jumpsuit --- which militants of Al Qaeda Organization of Holy War in Iraq had forced several hostages to wear before decapitating them.

But unlike previous videos of hostages kidnapped in Iraq, there were no militants or banners appearing in the short footage.

Dublin-born Hassan, who also appeared in videos issued by the kidnappers last week, is the eighth foreign woman to have been kidnapped in Iraq since April.

The others, including two Italian aid workers held for three weeks in September, have been freed.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq