Militants call for Hassan’s release
CAIRO, Egypt – The militant group al Qaeda in Iraq purportedly called Friday for the release of the kidnapped executive of the CARE charity, Margaret Hassan, and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.
In a message posted on the Internet, the group led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it wanted the world to know “if (the kidnappers of Margaret Hassan) handed us this captive, we will release her immediately unless it is proven she was conspiring against Muslims.”
“We are demanding that those who are in charge of her release her unless she is proven to be an agent. If guilty, they should show that to everybody so as not to attribute something to our religion that is alien to it,” the message said.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it was signed “al Qaeda in Iraq” and appeared on a Web site known for publishing messages from Islamic militant groups. The person who posted it used the pseudonym Abu Maysara al-Iraqi – the name usually associated with statements from al-Zarqawi’s group.
The statement appeared three days after a video was broadcast in which Hassan’s kidnappers said Britain had 48 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq or they would transfer her to al Qaeda in Iraq.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, which until recently called itself Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for beheading a number of Western hostages, such as American businessman Nick Berg and British civil engineer Kenneth Bigley. It also claimed a series of major vehicle bombings, such the attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last year.
The director of CARE International in Iraq, Hassan, 59, was kidnapped Oct. 19 as she drove to work in Baghdad. Patients at a hospital run by CARE staged a small demonstration calling for the release of Hassan, who has Irish, British and Iraqi citizenship.
Videos of Hassan in captivity have been released, but no group has claimed responsibility for her abduction. In two of the videos, Hassan pleads for her life, saying she fears she will be beheaded.
For the first time in a statement purportedly from al-Zarqawi’s band, Friday’s message took pains to defend the group’s actions, suggesting the militants wanted to distance themselves from their reputation as terrorists who kill hostages in cold blood and detonate car bombs that kill dozens of Iraqi civilians.
“We are not lovers of war or destruction,” the statement said. “We don’t adore blood and rejoice when it is spilled.”
“We changed the plans for a number of decisive operations against the enemy because of the presence of a Muslim who would have been killed by the explosions, and we canceled martyrdom (suicide) operations out of concern for the blood of Muslim passers-by.”