Militant Group in Iraq to Release Kidnapped Somali Truck Driver
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq Aug. 2, 2004 — A militant group said Monday that it will release a Somali truck driver it kidnapped because the Kuwaiti company he works for agreed to stop working in Iraq, al-Jazeera television said.
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group Tawhid and Jihad had threatened in an earlier video aired July 29 to behead Ali Ahmed Moussa within 48 hours if his company failed to leave the volatile country. It was not known exactly when he was kidnapped.
In the video broadcast Monday on the Arabic-language network, Moussa appeared kneeling before three black-clad, masked militants armed with assault rifles. One of the militants read a statement, which was inaudible.
The news-reader said the group was releasing Moussa "in appreciation of the attitudes of the Somali government and people toward Iraq and the Kuwaiti company's commitment to stop doing business in Iraq."
There was no word on when the Somali would be released.
The Kuwaiti company Moussa works for has not been publicly identified.
Al-Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility before for a number of bloody attacks across Iraq and, since April, the beheadings of several foreigners, including U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg, South Korean translator Kim Sun-il and Bulgarian truck driver Georgi Lazov.
Militants have abducted over 70 foreigners, many of them truck drivers entering Iraq with supplies for the U.S. military or contractors involved with Iraqi reconstruction efforts.
The kidnappings are apart of an insurgent campaign aimed at forcing coalition forces out of the country and scaring foreign companies away.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Friday, Somali President Abdiqasim Hassan Salad called upon the kidnappers to release the Somali and three Kenyans who were abducted separately July 21, saying the people of the two nations have always felt for the Iraqis and their plight.
"We in Somalia and Kenya have always saluted the resisting Iraqi people and we support them in their desire for peace, stability and sovereignty," he said.
The Kenyans were abducted along with three Indians and one Egyptian by a group calling themselves "The Holders of the Black Banners." They later demanded reparations for the people of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, and said they wanted all Iraqi prisoners held in Kuwait and by U.S. forces to be released.