Middle East News
Iraq kidnappers seek German pullout from Afghanistan
Mar 10, 2007, 9:07 GMT
Cairo - Kidnappers holding two Germans in Iraq released a video of their captives on Saturday and demanded Germany withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as a condition for their release.
The hostages, a German woman married to an Iraqi and the couple's son, were both seen in the video, excerpts of which were broadcast on the Arabic TV news channel al-Arabiya.
An accompanying message by the kidnappers demanded that Germany end its military presence in Afghanistan within 10 days. Germany has some 3,000 troops serving with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
The two hostages were seized on February 6 by armed men who burst into their family home in Baghdad.
A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said a crisis team set up after the kidnapping was examining the latest information.
The government has in the past imposed a news blackout on the abduction so as not to compromise efforts to obtain the release of the two hostages.
Media reports said the woman was in her sixties and her son in his mid-twenties. The family has reportedly lived in Iraq for decades.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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