A little-known Iraqi Islamist militant group said on Saturday it would kill two hostages, a German woman and her son, in 10 days if Berlin does not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
The Arrows of Righteousness group posted a video on the Internet showing Hannelore Marianne Krause urging Germany to heed the demands of the militants. The footage showed her passport.
The video was posted on Saturday on a Web site used by militant groups including al-Qaida.
“We give the German government 10 days from the date of this statement to announce and start the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan, otherwise … they will not even see the bodies of these two agents,” said a masked man, reading a statement on the video.
He did not give the date of the statement.
The speaker said Germany was “annihilating” fellow Muslims in Afghanistan and “smiling at us in Iraq. Do not the tyrants know that we are one nation with one religion?”
Germany opposed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Krause, 61, who was sitting next to a younger man, urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet the demands of her abductors to save her life and that of her son. Both hostages were weeping as she made her plea.
It was not clear if the man was also German, but Krause said he was recently wed and that his wife might be pregnant. Her German-language statement was translated in Arabic on the video.
I was in rant upon reading this in the newspapers and watching it on tv as well. What do these terrorists want to prove? That they are powerful? Is this act of violence the teachings of their religion? Surely not. Most of the muslims opposed to this kind of bastardous way of getting their cause. If they are man enough, why dont they challenge Germany or any western country they don’t like, to a man-to-man fist fight, than capturing two innocent souls weaker than they? This is just not a fair match.
The galantry of a soldier and the courage of a real man seemed to be alien from these people. I fully oppose every war that the US engaged in, but at least, if it finds countries who are not complying to the democratic and human principles, it declares an open war against them. They just don’t kidnap any Mohammed or Ali from the street to publicize their cause. Unlike these group of fanatics who i think dont even know what they are fighting for. Don’t they know that Germany was the only NATO country who didn’t supported Bush in the 2003 Iraq invasion? Is that the price of being neutral and peaceloving?
I just hope that these kidnapping of innocent western nationals should stop at once. In my opinion, people who are doing this are not real fighters. They are just mean, and their strategy……pure COWARDICE!!
