National News U.K. hostage pleads for his life after Iraqi militants behead two Americans

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BAGHDAD (AP) - A British hostage appeared on a video posted on an Islamic Web site Sept. 22 weeping and pleading for his life as Iraqi and U.S. officials denied that a high-profile female Iraqi weapons scientist, Rihab Rashid Taha, would be released from jail soon - as demanded by the kidnappers.

The captive, Kenneth Bigley, was being held by a militant group led by Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The group has already beheaded Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, whom it abducted along with Bigley.

On Sept. 22, the militant group posted a video of Hensley's killing on the Internet, as it had two days earlier of Armstrong's beheading.

The kidnappers have demanded that female detainees be released immediately.

The U.S. military says it has two Iraqi women in custody, both high-profile security detainees - Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."

Confusion over Taha's fate began when an Iraqi Justice Ministry official announced that "Iraqi authorities have agreed ... to conditionally release Rihab Rashid Taha on bail," because she was no longer a threat to national security.

But a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any immediate release. The two scientists from Saddam Hussein's regime "are in our legal and physical custody," he said.

The conflicting U.S. and Iraqi statements raise questions over who has authority in the country, even after the U.S. handover of sovereignty to Iraq's interim government in June.

イラク、科学者釈放巡り混乱

イラクの武装組織が女性科学者の釈放を求めて米英民間人を人質に取り、米国人2人を殺害、残る英国人人質の殺害も警告しているが、米当局は22日、武装組織の要求には応じない立場を強調した。

Shukan ST: Oct. 1, 2004

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