Zarqawi group urges UK hostage release

11.00am

A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have appealed to Iraqi militants holding an Iraqi-British woman hostage to free her unless she was proven to be a spy, a message posted on an Islamic website said.

The unknown militant group holding Margaret Hassan has threatened to turn her over to Zarqawi's group unless British troops quit Iraq.

"We call on those responsible for her abduction to free her ... unless there is proof of her being an agent," the group said in the message.

It said the captors were obligated to publish any evidence they might hold against her. The message could not be immediately authenticated.

Zarqawi's al Qaeda Organisation of Holy War in Iraq has claimed responsibility for hostage beheadings and some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide attacks.

Dublin-born Hassan, director of Care International's now halted operations in Iraq, has an Iraqi husband and has lived in Iraq for 30 years. She holds British and Iraqi passports.

She was seized in Baghdad on October 19.

Militants have waged a campaign of kidnappings and killings to try to force US-led troops and foreigners to leave Iraq. More than 35 foreign hostages have been killed.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq