(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

Pakistani hostage threatened with beheading

    BAGHDAD, June 27 (Xinhuanet) -- An unknown armed group held a Pakistani hostage and threatened to behead him if prisoners detained in Iraq are not released in three days, Arabiya news channel reported on Sunday.

    "You must release our prisoners held in the US base in Balad, Dujail, Yathrib, Samarra and Abu Ghraib and you have three days from now on and after that we will behead him," said the group.

    The Pakistani, a driver working with the US-led coalition and entering Iraq from Kuwait, was taken hostage near Balad in northern Iraq, mentioned the group.

    In another video footage aired by the channel, the hostage, identified himself as Amjed, urged Pakistani President Parvez Musharraf to close down the Pakistani embassy in Iraq.

    "I don't know who they are or what they demand, but I warn all Pakistani citizens off Iraq because these guys are very dangerous,"said the man.

    The Pakistani was the latest known foreign hostage with links to the US-led occupation forces kidnapped in Iraq.

    Militants who beheaded two foreign hostages in Iraq claimed they had kidnapped three Turkish workers and would kill them unless the Turkish government withdraws its companies from Iraq, al-Jazeera television, another Arab news channel, reported on Saturday.

    Groups purportedly led by Abu Mosab Al-Zarqawi kidnapped and beheaded American businessman Nicholas Berg in May and South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il this week.

    Over 40 people from various countries have been abducted in Iraq since April. Enditem

Iraqi militants threaten to behead US Marine -- TV

A television image aired by Al Jazeera June 27, 2004 shows a blindfolded man dressed in camouflage sitting in a chair with a hand holding a sword above his head. A Marine Corps identity card named him as Wassef Ali Hassoun and Jazeera said he was of Pakistani origin. Al Jazeera television said a group calling itself the Islamic Response Movement, the security wing of the "1920 Revolution Brigades", had kidnapped the U.S. Marine after luring him from a U.S. base. Militants have kidnapped a U.S. Marine and a Pakistani driver in Iraq and are threatening to behead them unless Iraqi prisoners are freed, Arab television reported on Sunday. (China Daily/Reuters)

   BAGHDAD, June 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi militants have allegedly kidnapped a US marine and threatened to behead him unless Iraqi prisoners are released, al-Jazeera Satellite TV reported on Sunday.

   A group, which called itself the "Islamic Retaliation Movement", was quoted as saying that the marine of Pakistani origin would be executed unless detainees in US-led coalition prisons are freed.

   The name of the captive was Hasun Wassef Ali and he was abducted outside a Marine base, the group claimed.

   In a video footage aired by Arabiya news channel earlier on Sunday, an unknown armed group announced that it was holding a Pakistani hostage and he would be beheaded if prisoners detained in Iraq are not released in three days.

   "You must release our prisoners held in the US base in Balad, Dujail, Yathrib, Samarra and Abu Ghraib and you have three days from now on and after that we will behead him," said the group.

   The Pakistani, a driver working with the US-led coalition and entering Iraq from Kuwait, was taken hostage near Balad in northern Iraq, mentioned the group.  Enditem